Kingdom Escaflowne
by NachtMusik
Summary: So much to do . . So little time. When the creatures born from the darkness came, the 'Key' to their survival chose its new master. Hitomi must take the stand against the darkness, as the stars in the sky begin to disappear. . . (Revised Edition)
1. Eternal Darkness

AN: This is the first chapter of an experimental story idea of the biggest question anyone can ask; what if? As far as I have been able to tell, it was kind of a stupid idea, and it would have been even worse if I hadn't gone back to revise it all. That's right, if you're now interested in this fic, you might get the best of it because everything's a lot less confusing this time around. I still wonder if it were ever really a good idea to post this. . .

Anyway, the most I really did was take the same basic principles (and most of the plot) of Kingdom Hearts and rewrite it into a plausible, but impossible, sequel for Escaflowne. So, much is to be argued as to how creative I really was when I wrote this, but you know. Sometimes you just have to write something no matter what anyone else thinks! Below is a link to the first illustration of this fic. I think I'll have an illustration for each chapter. Sound's good, ne?

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, Kingdom Hearts, or anything Disney.  
  
***  
  
". . . The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes."

  
Chapter One: Eternal Darkness  
  
One thing was very certain, today was a very odd day. What was so odd about it was that nothing, nothing, seemed out of the ordinary, and yet it somehow felt very different indeed. Merle felt it. She felt it from the moment she had awoken that morning before the first light crept over the mountains to light the streets of Fanelia. It was something dark, foreboding and yet, familiar...

Why was it familiar if it felt so awful? The war had ended but a year ago, and her animal instinct told her that something wasn't right about this day, and yet the danger was not that apparent to anyone else. Except for maybe Ruhm, who was wondering about Fanelia, looking for something. He had a worried expression on his face that only confirmed what Merle was feeling. It was very unsetteling, and yet there wasn't a dark cloud in the sky.

Nature was making a mockery of a situation that Merle felt was harmful. For some reason Van hadn't seemed very concerned at all. She suspected because he was so detatched to the world around him, except for Fanelia, that he couldn't possibly feel the danger or presence of something wicked. What was it?!

"Lord Van," she asked, as he directed some of the crew men still repairing parts of the palace. Van had been most kind in seeing that the homes of his citizens were completed first and the palace last, though they did a little of that at the same time.

"Yes, Merle?" He wiped some sweat from his brow.

"How come..." she began, "how come you don't feel it, Lord Van?"

"Merle, don't worry. Whatever it is that worries you, don't give it another thought. You might be thinking that something bad is going to happen because we're so close to being finished with the repairs. I was scarcely King when Zaibach attacked," he said with a sad sort of smile, though he looked determined and yet quite content for the moment. "Don't worry," he said again, "nothing bad will happen. I'll make sure of that."

With that, he turned back to continue his work. Merle frowned. She wanted to believe him, but her own senses told her Van was being stupid. Even though he hadn't meant to be stupid, he was still ignoring one of the biggest warning signs, aside from Merle, that in the last few clear nights the Mystic Moon was growing dimmer and dimmer...  
  
**  
  
The week dragged on for Hitomi. School was a pain, and it occurred to her by Wednesday that thinking required too much effort. It was time for midterms and that was the last thing Hitomi really wanted to do. Other students were so confident in what they were doing. Hitomi was confident that she could get hit by a truck better than getting a decent grade on her midterm.

This year she was a sophomore. After the war had ended and she went back home, nothing had really changed from the way it was. A year from when she supposedly left had tucked itself away from sight. Amano had finally moved away in just the past week. He and Yukari still kept in touch and every chance Yukari had gotten she talked about her relationship with Hitomi. When she did, Hitomi thought about when she had first gone to Gaea (though no one knew she had even left because she came back the day she would have left) and she remembered some sorrowful of her feelings for Allen and Van. She had called herself fickle when she started to believe she was in love with Allen. _Fickle heart . . . a weak heart. . ._ Remembering the past helped her sometimes to appreciate how far she had come since then.

That was in the past now. The future: midterms. Tonight would be better, she thought. Yukari was coming over to help her study and for all she knew, she had at least a chance at passing the midterms. But, something had warned her earlier, when she looked outside. Some dark storm clouds were gathering all around. She didn't interpret this storm as being any other danger, but something had whispered that it might not be a good idea to have her best friend come over. She shrugged off an improbable hunch. So, the weather man said it would be clear all week. Winter was coming soon, and she assumed that the weather man was wrong, again. However, she was worried that the storm would bring lightning and strong winds, and that was never good. The last storm they had like that had blown over their front yard gate and jammed it into the garage door. Her father had to call for the jaws of life just to get their minivan out.   
  
Aside from that, tonight wouldn't be all bad. Her family was taking off for a film after dinner. Her annoying brother would be going with them! That was on her mind as the final bell signaled the end of the school day. By the time she had gotten out the weather was terrible. The wind was harsh, cold, and it stung her skin when it hit her. It wasn't surprising that track meet was canceled this day.

It was after dinner sooner than she had expected. Seven p.m. snuck up on everyone. The rest of the Kanzaki family left in haste to make it to the theater, leaving behind extra dishes, cups, and even silverware for Hitomi to put up before Yukari came over.

Putting the dirty dishes into the sink, she noticed how loudly the wind was howling, and how dark it was. It had gradually darkened outside, but she hadn't paid much attention to that until now. The kitchen window was taking a severe beating from the wind, but managed to hold together. It had done so in the past when the garage door got jammed, why would that stop now? She went back into the family room and began laying her homework out. She heard a loud crash in the kitchen and for a brief instant was overcome with fear. Walking in, she noticed that a small rock was in a pile of broken glass on the floor. She felt relieved when that was all it was. The wind was so strong that it very well could have picked up the small rock. The shatter had just surprised her at a time when she was focusing on a different matter. After cleaning up the broken glass and patching up the window with card board and tape, she went back to the family room.

Sitting on the floor, her mind began to wander. The storm was beginning to bother her more and more. Was her family all right? They probably should have stayed home, she thought. It's suicide out there.

"I'm being silly, it's only a storm," she said to herself. With that thought in place she began to feel better. No storm was going to ruin anything more than a kitchen window, or maybe the garage door again. Nothing more. . ._ Wait!_ her mind called in alarm. "I forgot about Yukari!"

Her first impulse was to call Yukari's home and make sure she hadn't left yet. If in the case the garage door were to be ruined again she would not like it if Yukari stepped into their front yard and was also crushed by the gate, or something else potentially heavier than that. She picked up the phone and heard no dial tone. The wind must have ripped the lines down! she thought.

"What if Yukari is already on her way?" she asked herself aloud.

Grabbing a jacket she hurriedly ran out the front door, down the steps, and into the street. The windy weather obscured her vision, but she could tell well enough that there weren't any cars or people on the streets. _That's odd_, she thought. _There should at least be something out here. _Not everyone on her street had room enough in their garage to put their car. She had noticed that walking to and from school. Her neighbors would have their garages open and they'd be too full of junk to put even a pencil in. And then some of her neighbors didn't have any garage at all.

"Has a state of emergency been declared?" she said. A state of emergency that required evacuation and not staying indoors was fairly weird, unless there was an out of control fire, which was a possibility. Wind like this could fan the smallest match into the largest fire, but all the moisture she smelled in the air was conflicting that possibility. She pushed that thought aside and looked around as hard as possible for anyone or anything still on the streets.

She saw a shadowed figure standing a block away. She ran towards it for a closer look. It was Yukari.

She just stood there. Her back was actually turned away from the direction of Hitomi's home. "Yukari!" she called. Yukari turned, a blank expression in her eyes. _Is there something wrong with Yukari? _she thought to herself. _It's not normal for people to stand like that or even look like that in this type of weather_. She ran towards her, and for some reason she felt as if the wind was trying to keep her away. She ran harder and the wind blew harder. The cold air stung her face and it hurt her eyes to keep them open. Yukari didn't seem to be effected by the wind at all. She just stood there. Yukari held out her hand to her.

Hitomi tried to grasp it, but something went terribly wrong. Even though it was already dark, a pool of something darker grabbed hold of Yukari, pulling her in. Yukari wasn't struggling at all against it. _Is she on some sort of medicine? I knew she's had a cold for the past couple days, but. . ._ So, Hitomi struggled harder to reach Yukari, but that same darkness that loomed over in the sky, that held Yukari, had grabbed her and was forcing her back. 

The next thing Hitomi was aware of was that she was on her back and Yukari was no longer in sight. "Yukari!!!" Hitomi screamed in vain. Yukari was gone. Hitomi got up and brushed some of the dirt from her clothing. She stood devastated. _Is any of this for real? _She couldn't just believe her best friend had vanished just like that. _What's happening? Why would Yukari vanish like that? _She then felt something heavy in her hand. At first it felt like a bag of groceries but in mere seconds the weight became that of three bags worth of dog food. It was very heavy and hard, and she could barely stand up with whatever it was in her hands.

Then the weight disappeared, but the key still remained in her hands. _What's this? _Well, it was a key, that much was clear, but what was it meant for? She ran many of these questions over and over again, they all seemed to lead back to Yukari for some reason. The wind hadn't died down, though Hitomi didn't seem to feel it anymore. She became distracted from her thoughts when her eye caught something. It was a moving shadow!

It took form and had an insect like appearance. It approached her slowly in a menacing manner. More shadows began to appear all around. The swarm of shadows became uncomfortably close to her. They came up silently, all reaching for her. She began to feel that these creatures would harm her. Before they could touch her she fled.

In a panic she ran back to her home. In front of the gate were more of those strange shadows, but this time they lunged for her. She managed to dodge and run back into the street. This is a nightmare! she thought. She ran where there were no shadows. Many came out after her from all directions. It was utter chaos!

  
"If this isn't a bad sign," she whispered, "I don't know what is." At that moment her vision did not darken, but no sooner had she finished her sentence something very odd began to happen. As if everything began to blur and yet it was perfectly clear. The shadows vanished from view, the streets were empty of everything until it was only a road. She walked to the edge of the road and looked down into a dark abyss. Confusion took hold. She wanted to know what was going on, but at the same time, she afraid of what the answer might be.  
  
The pavement she was standing on was wound down to a small block of concrete. It looked like a piece of paper with torn edges. It wasn't really supported by anything but the furiously, howling wind. Hitomi remained in the middle of what was left of the road. Eyes appeared all along the edges. Fear was taking hold. Then at last she decided that panicking was the worst thing she could do now. More composed now, she readied herself for what she thought was likely to happen.

  
". . This world has been connected . ." Hitomi heard a cold, dark, and calm voice say. She looked for the source of this voice, but found none. It began again. " . . Tied to the darkness . ."  
  
"Who are you?" she asked, but received no answer.  
  
" . . There is so much to learn, you understand so little . ." the same voice told her.  
  
"Answer me!" Hitomi grew angry. The last thing she wanted in this chaos was a mind game. That same voice never did answer. It left, she figured when another voice came in.  
  
This voice had no real feel or sound to it, but she easily understood it.  
" . . Do not be afraid."  
  
"No problem, I'm past being afraid at this point," the now annoyed Hitomi said. If anymore voices came she thought she would   
  
" . . For you hold the mightiest weapon of all."  
  
Something connected in her mind then. The key! This was a weapon? So, she did have a way of fighting back against those shadows all along - and perhaps a way to save Yukari. The voices disappeared all together, the road broke apart beneath her feet and she fell . . .  
  
**  
  
It was a bright and cheerful day. Donald for one was not in a bad mood, a rarity indeed! It was his duty as the court wizard to check upon the King and discuss the issues of the kingdom.  
  
"Good morning Your Majesty," Donald said, not noticing the empty throne right off. "How are you -" The duck with the speech impediment did not get to finish his sentence. When he did notice the empty throne he nearly panicked. Where was the King? Behind the throne was Pluto with a note in his mouth. Running over, fear in his eyes, Donald Duck read the note. Screaming as a duck would scream, he raced out of the Throne Room to find Goofy, Captain of the Knights.

(AN: Yes, we've crossed over into the Disney universe now. Scary, no?)  
  
The last thing Donald wanted to do was raise fear among the people of the Disney Kingdom. He decided it was best that the Queen and Lady of the Court did not discover exactly what the King was up to, for if they showed fear then things could go terribly wrong in their Kingdom, or so Donald had interpreted.

  
"Wake up, Goofy, we have a problem!" Donald urged the sleeping knight to wake up. He remained asleep. "Wake up!" As the duck said this he summoned a lightning bolt to strike the clueless knight awake.  
  
"Oh . ." It took a moment for Goofy's mind to register that he was not sleeping anymore. "G'mornin' Donald!"  
  
Donald was tapping his foot in impatience. "Goofy."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I need you to listen very, very carefully."  
  
"Oh, sure no problem," Goofy said giving his usual chuckle.  
  
"All right, but what I tell you must be kept a secret. You can't tell anyone!" Donald said sternly.  
  
"Queen Minnie?" Goofy said.  
  
"No, not even the Queen!"   
  
"Daisy?"  
  
"No, don't tell anyone!" Donald yelled.  
"Ok." Goofy said. "G'mornin' ladies!" The kind knight waved at Minnie and Daisy who were standing just behind Donald.  
  
"What?" Donald turned to see two unhappy women. "Uh oh . ."  
  
"You had something you would like to share with us?" Daisy inquired.

Donald felt very foolish then. He walked over, sulking, and handed the note to the Queen. She read it and motioned them to follow her to the library. She read aloud what was written. The five beings (Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, and Pluto) listened to what was written in the note.

The King had specified that he noticed the stars beginning to disappear and had left to find the source of the problem. The note also mentioned a history about a "Key" that the King said would be the Key to their salvation. Obviously, this was a lot larger than anyone could think. So, it was asked that Donald and Goofy go and find this "Key." Although, they didn't fully understand what they were looking for, Minnie ressured them that they would know it when they found it.

"First you must go to a world called Gaea. Find the one called Ruhm; he will tell you all about this Key, for it is a familiar legend to him, and the people of Gaea," Minnie said.

"Why just this Ruhm feller?" Goofy asked.

"Because he is the only one you can really trust when you arrive there," she answered. "I will give you this, it will be the power to travel from world to world." She handed them a pink stone.

"Uh, how will we know what world we are going to?" Donald asked, looking at the stone.

"Should you not know where exactly you are going, the light will take you to where you need to be, but before you go you two will need to change in a more worldly apparel." 

By the power of magic, Donald's ordinary wizard's outfit was altered to something in between his and a sailor's. Goofy's scrubby uniform and armor was replaced by comfortable looking pants, a green turtle neck sweater and a black vest. 

"I will send you to Gaea. Find a village called Arzas, that is where Ruhm lives. He's a friend of the King and knows most about the Key. I'm afraid after that you are on your own," she said to them.

"We can do this!" Donald said confidently.

"Is there more you can tell us about how to reach Arzas?" Goofy asked.

Minnie shook her head. "You will learn a great deal more on your own than if I were to simply tell you. Be warned. Dragons roam that land, and are nothing like the reluctant dragon here."

"You mean they don't play flutes? Oof!" Donald jabbed Goofy in the ribs.

"No," she said, "although they have a bad temper, they are valuable."

"How so?" Goofy asked.

"That stone in your hand, Donald, is like the heart of the Gaean dragons. It will help to generate the mystical light that will carry you from world to world. If you ever need to get to a safe haven, Gaea, the stone in your hand will take you back there. This stone will also translate any language you come by on your journey."

"What do you call it?" Donald asked.

"It's called a Drag-energist. Good luck now."

Minnie touched the energist and it began to glow. A pillar of light descended and they were gone.

**  
  
Hitomi awoke with a start, but then slowly dragged herself from slipping back to unconsciousness. She became aware of her surroundings one by one. She wasn't laying down, rather sitting against a hard surface, which she deduced as a brick wall. She was sitting on cold cobblestone ground which felt damp through her blue jeans. Part of her jacket was caught on a crate next to her and there was a small brown stain on her orange T-shirt, which came from the dripping roof. She sat up, her head throbbing a little bit, but not too much to anchor her from moving. The last thing she was aware of was that blasted key that was still in her hand.  
  
"Oh . ." she moaned, "what a ride." She staggered into a standing position and propped herself up on the key. Not knowing exactly where she was, she looked up into the sky. It was gray. Getting a better look of where she landed, she saw from her corner of the alleyway that the people in the streets were wearing tunics and beast-men wandered around in between them. Did she fall to Gaea? She must have, she decided.

Gaea. The world of fantasy that was too real to be true and yet it was. It had only been a year. One year since her departure and the sky was clouded over. She couldn't tell where she ended up at first. She picked the key up and began walking. She would find someone who could tell her where exactly she was. If she was on Gaea, she would find Van and then, she promised, she would find Yukari. That was, if Yukari managed to escape.  
  
**  
  
When King Mickey ordered something to be done, it wasn't just an order, it was a favor being asked by a friend. Donald and Goofy were happy to do it, but wished they had gotten a little bit more warning before they left. It was overall a surprise to them. They assumed that wherever they were, they must be on that plane called Gaea. The one thing that was hardest to choke down was the notion that other worlds, stars were disappearing.   
  
"Do you think its true?" Donald asked.  
  
"What is?"  
  
"About the stars disappearing."  
  
"Oh." He thought about it for a moment. "Well, I don't know. We just have to trust King Mickey on this one."  
  
Donald nodded. They themselves hadn't seen the stars disappear, but then again neither one had really looked up at the sky recently. It was hard to notice the stars from their world. Because the light they gave off was always distorted through the atmosphere that made them naturally blink and twinkle. They touched down only a few yards away from where they saw a village.

"There's someone now," Donald whispered to Goofy. "Let's see if we can really communicate with him."

"If it doesn't work," Goofy whispered back, "I want my money back."

"Goofy, Queen Minnie gave this to us," Donald replied.

"Oh, uh, right!" Goofy said aloud.

Donald slapped his palm across his forehead. He wondered if the rest of their journey was going to be like this.

Goofy asked a near by beast-man, "is this Arzas?" The beast-man nodded.

  
"We need to speak with Ruhm!" Donald yelled.

  
"I'm sorry," the wolf-man said, "I can't understand you."  
  
"Donald's askin' where Ruhm is."  
  
"Oh, he's out hunting right now. He will return tomorrow."  
  
"Tomorrow!?" Donald nearly fainted.  
  
"But we need to find him now. We don't know how much time we got," Goofy said.  
  
"Very well, he's headed to the east, towards Fanelia. Beware of the dragons."  
The wolf-man pointed towards a forest off in the distance.   
  
"That's the second warnin' we got about dragons. Do you think we'll be safe?" Goofy asked as they started walking.  
  
"Goofy, you have a shield and I have my mage's staff. Don't worry, we'll be fine. We just have to find Ruhm as quickly as possible."  
  
**  
  
It had probably been hours since Hitomi had wandered from the small town. She was heading east, as far as she knew. She was only told briefly that she was going east, and quite likely toward the Kingdom of Fanelia. She didn't know for sure if that was exactly right, but when she'd fallen to that little town, the bell in her head had been rung quite a bit loudly and therefore her sense of direction wasn't what it should have been. Up ahead she saw a forest. It looked familiar. Like the one she was riding through with Van and Ruhm on the way to Fanelia. She felt like she was actually getting closer. Then she recalled her experience with the dragons.

"This will not bode well," she said to herself. She couldn't help being afraid of dragons. After all she hadn't ever defended herself from a dragon at all before. It was Van who slew the first, and Folken who calmed her down in the face of danger the second time. Could she save herself? Well, she still had this really big, stupid looking key that she thought was a weapon. What was she supposed to do with it? Beat a dragon over the head with it if it tried to eat her? She worked out the scenario in her mind, a best case scenario in which it resembled a cartoon where she would hit the dragon, it would cry and run off. Yes, best case...but not possible, for she was more likely to enrage the dragon than make it cry.

She had stood in the middle of that field thinking it over and over and eventually decided that she was not getting anywhere by just standing there. For all she knew about dragons (which was still about zero) she could make it to Fanelia safely enough. She didn't have much choice either. Going home seemed out of the question right now. She wasn't sure if what happened to her on Earth really did happen. Was it a vision or a nightmare? She could not be sure.

Then she thought of her visions...Before she came to Gaea last year, she had a vision of Van. _What the heck happened this time?_ Where was her inner feeling or sixth sense'? The power that always told her when trouble was coming? Something had dialed it down so she only got a bad feeling when the storm came. Even then it only felt bad because she knew storms were usually bad. Maybe it was stress from school that did it? That didn't make much sense to her. She was under stress from the war and she still had visions.

"I'll probably find what I'm looking for in Fanelia," she said. She didn't know why she thought that, but when she thought about it, it made her feel better. She was no longer afraid, and maybe that power of hers had returned to tell her that she was doing the right thing. Chances were she just really felt confident that she had a goal to reach, and when she reached it her troubles would be over.

  
**  
  
In the forest, Donald and Goofy managed to find the pack of hunters. Though it wasn't easy, they stumbled upon them without much effort. The forest was large, dark from all the tree cover, and damp. They stumbled upon the hunters quite literally when Goofy stumbled on a root and fell through a large shrubbery. 

Donald spoke first. "Uh. . ."

Goofy took over from there; "Are one of you fellers Ruhm?"

"I am Ruhm. Who would like to know?" the large wolf-man asked.

"We would. We were sent to find you," Donald explained.

"By whom?" he asked.

"By our King. King Mickey. We are searching for . . ." Donald was interrupted.

"The Key to our salvation!" Goofy finished.

The Key has been found then? he thought to himself. No, they didn't have it, they were looking for it. He knew that much. If someone were to seek it, it would mean that the Key had already chosen its new master. Someone else had it. King Mickey had shared a tale with him a while ago about the Key and its power. He did say that if someone were to ever ask for the Key to our salvation' it meant that the Key was already in someone else's possession.

The two odd looking animals looked ill when they saw the pile of carcasses on the cart. How odd it was that they would show up about the time when it suddenly became cold.

It then began to snow. Ruhm looked into the gray sky. It had gotten cold already... _There is something about this weather that is related to them._ He would have to wait until they got back to Arzas to tell them anything. Out here it was not safe to sip a cup of tea. He began to explain something to them, however.

"We do our hunting about this time of year to ensure our village has food to outlast the winter. Today is a surprise though. It was comfortable yesterday, I wasn't predicting snow for at least a couple more weeks," he said.

"So, this weather is unexpected then?" Donald asked.

"Yes, in fact just a few minutes ago I would say it was about mid temperature, but now it had dropped... Something is coming," Ruhm said.

Donald and Goofy were on alert, still adjusting the now cold weather. What was coming? they wondered. Off in the distance they heard a hungry roar. 

"Is that..?" Donald began.

"No, that is not the trouble I feel coming. That is a dragon. It has caught the scent of our fresh kill," Ruhm said. "The trouble I sensed with the early snow fall may be connected to the Key to our salvation.'"

The roar of the dragon was closer than they all thought. A hungry dragon appeared near by, and was closing in fast. The other hunters readied themselves to chase off the beast. It was huge! Donald and Goofy decided to help.

  
"Let's go, Goofy!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
The Wizard led the charge followed by a somewhat frightened Knight. Armed with only a shield and a mage's staff they charged forth into what could very well have been their final resting place.  
  
**   
  
Not far off in the forest, Hitomi heard the roar of a dragon. That was something that she wasn't going to easily forget. She felt the fear grip her inside, she froze as she began to feel herself knot up. A dragon was near, and it didn't sound happy. Then she thought about it. She never actually came across a happy dragon before. In any case, the dragon didn't sound like it would be in a mood to let an easy meal get by. She ran to a nearby tree and hugged close to it, looking around and listening carefully for the direction the dragon was in.

She was unable to find the exact direction from which the dragon was coming. When she began listening all around she could hear various sounds, obscuring a clear path from which danger would come. She then decided it best to attempt dowsing. When she found it, she would walk clear around it. Just like that! She concentrated as hard as she could, but only a faint picture came to mind, and in it was someone she recognized from a year ago. It was Ruhm! She'd only met the wolf-man twice, but it's not a face that she wouldn't forget. Especially since he was one of the nicer guys she had met on Gaea. He either didn't kidnap her or taunt her every chance there was. Although she didn't personally blame Merle or Nariya for her experience, he still got a higher mark in her book than they did. Sadly, it was also the area in which the dragon was that she saw him. As faint as the image was it was vivid enough to see Ruhm and a dragon.

The original plan was that she would not go anywhere near a dragon if she could help it. However, she felt that she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. So, with all the courage she could muster, she ran towards the area where the dragon was. Tripping over the same root Goofy had earlier she crashed into the camp area; falling backwards on her came Goofy, and thrown on top from the whip of the dragons tail, was Donald.

The hunters managed to fight off the minatory dragon at a price; they lost all of their meat, though none of them were wounded in the least the hunters were back to square one. With winter settling so quickly they didn't have much time to accumulate that number of deer and wild boar again.

Meanwhile, the pile of three strangers to the world of Gaea shook off the aches and pains from the bash the dragon had given them. Goofy and Donald were shaken to their senses by Hitomi, who was struggling to get free of their weight. A shiny piece of metal caught their eyes at that moment. 

  
"The Key!" they shouted in unison.  
  
"Eh?" Hitomi breathed.  
  
Getting off poor Hitomi, they were kind enough to help her up. Ruhm watched with great curiousity at these three. Mostly the third figure to join their party by accident. It was her! She looked different. Then he saw what was so different about her. She was wearing different clothing, her short hair was messed up, and her face was dirty.   
  
"We found you!" Goofy was about to hug the poor confused girl, but Donald intervened.   
  
"I didn't know I was lost," she said.

"No, no!" Donald pointed to the Key in her hands.

Ruhm approached them. _Yes, the Key has been found. Who would have guessed that the Little Lady would have been the one to be claimed by it?_  
  
"It's nice to see you again, Hitomi," Ruhm addressed her.  
  
"Oh, Ruhm, hi," She nervously stated.  
  
Donald and Goofy were confused. How did he know this girl? Their question could be answered later. Although they were to stay out and hunt for food all over again, Ruhm insisted that they go back and freshen their supplies before trying again. He also insisted that Hitomi rest up for the night and she would be escorted to Fanelia later.

"What should we do about our hunt?" one of the wolfmen asked Ruhm.

"Don't worry about it. With weather like this, I don't think it'll make much difference if we come back in another day," he replied, but not to their liking.

"Sir, we don't have enough food in the village to outlast the winter, we should hunt now, before the storm gets worse," he insisted.

Ruhm shook his head. "No. Circumstances are beyond our control right now. We must go along with them. Something has happened, and returning now will make little to no difference than if we did stay. Trust me. What we've felt this day and earlier is connected to this odd weather pattern." _As well as these three. _

"So, we return to Arzas and then what?"

"We get the Little Lady here and the King's friends cleaned up. There is something they must know." They loaded their cart and started back west towards Arzas.

**

That evening they sat around a camp fire, eating a small meal and ale. Well, Hitomi, Goofy, and Donald refused the ale and had some sort of juice instead. The juice was a melange of orange, mango, and grape. It was surprisingly sweet and tangy, and tasted a lot better than that wine she had at her first night in Asturia. At least she wouldn't get drunk from it.

  
"It was a year ago, wasn't it, when I first took you and the Prince, well King Van, to Fanelia?" Ruhm said, remembering that night. Hitomi was not at all what he expected someone from the cursed moon to be. She was as normal as any other human he had met, though different too, but she had this feeling of trust with her that made one feel calm and safe. Van had told him that when she left.

  
"Yes, it was," she answered.  
  
"You seem kind of down; are you all right?" Ruhm asked.  
  
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," she said.  
  
"There is something that I want to tell you then. About the Key beside you," he said.

She looked to her left. The key just laid there in the snow. The snow was cold, but it wasn't wet at all. Almost more like a white powder than real snow, for it never melted even when the camp fire flared and roared with as much heat as it could.

"That Key is the Key to our salvation," he began, glancing toward Goofy and Donald, "and a mighty weapon against the darkness. The Key, or rather, Keyblade has the power to unlock any door. . ." he trailed off, he looked serious at that moment. "Something has happened on the Mystic Moon, hasn't it?"

Hitomi nodded. "Well, something. I think. It wasn't entirely clear to me."  
  
"I see," he began. "The Heartless have been freed and are now devouring the worlds one by one. They would have reached Gaea if the Mystic Moon weren't in their way. They will pursue you wherever you go."

  
"Why would they do that?" she asked, feeling most uncomfortable.

"There's something about hearts that the Heartless feed upon. The darkness in people's hearts. They go after the one with the Keyblade because that individual has the strongest heart." He paused, thinking for a bit and continued. "Yes, I remember now. The Keyblade will choose its master, the one with the strongest heart."

"How do you know all this?" she asked, ignoring the last words he spoke.

"I was told," he said.

"By whom?" she asked.

"Their King," he gestured to the wizard and knight.

"The tale of the Heartless and the one called Ansem is older than Gaea. Older than Atlantis," he began.

"How is that so?" she asked.

"That, the King would not tell me. He knew that the one called Ansem had an entire report on the Heartless. It has been scattered throughout the ages and is not all together. I saw their King again, but briefly; he was searching for something relating to the disappearing stars." He took another drink. "It may be Ansem's report, but I cannot be sure. He was in such a hurry that I could not get him to stop and tell me exactly what he was up to."

"The King was here?!" Donald and Goofy said in unison.

"Yes, he was. I know you two are also looking for him. However, I do not know where he went."

Their expression of joy dropped like a rock trying to swim.

"Well, you've found the Key," Ruhm began. "Will you now try to find the King?"

"We have to! He needs our help!" Goofy said.

"Are you sure? Why didn't he bring you along?" Ruhm said.

"We need to know why he needs the Key," Donald said.

Ruhm stood up. "Tomorrow you will got to Fanelia. We will talk to Van about this matter."

The firelight began to fade, and for that single cold night they retreated into the huts to get some sleep. Hitomi watched the two men worry over their King, and Ruhm go inside without changing his expression. She thought she would have a sleepless night. There was a lot on her mind. New and old memories would keep her awake until the early hours of morning. There was a lot going on and much for her to consider. She went inside, curled up in the warm down blankets set for her, and tried to get some sleep. _Where is Yukari?_ was a question that wandered in after reliving the details of the night before as if she really did believe they happened. She was skeptical of it, but nevertheless considered it until morning came at last and Ruhm shook her from her thoughts, not sleep.

**

She wasn't tired at all. Her mind was still restless and her body didn't drag on her at all. The morning's ride to Fanelia was overall very quiet. Donald and Goofy whispered to each other every now and then, but did not talk to her much. They only asked once if she was feeling well, when she grabbed a pouch full of piscus juice instead of that other kind she had at dinner. She had a rather sour expression on her face for at least ten minutes. Aside from that, the snow only fell lightly and then completely stopped just before she drank the disgusting juice.

No sooner had that expression left her face and the aftertaste faded did they arrive at the gates of Fanelia. Ruhm spoke to the guard quickly and quietly. The guard nodded and signaled to have the gate opened. They were allowed to go in a few feet before being asked to dismount the giant beast. They were then escorted to the castle gates. Most of the buildings had been restored. There were a few that were still under construction. Especially the castle, which only appeared to be half built. The men working looked exhausted and sweat was seen on every piece of exposed skin. However, by the expressions on their faces they did not look like they would be ready to quit working for the day for quite some while.

The gates opened and they were ushered in by a group of guards. They were taken to the newly finished study, where Van was. All but two guards left them and returned to their posts. Hitomi had to admit that she was intimidated by all this. Ruhm stood his ground.

Van had his nose to his desk and didn't bother to look up once the door was shut. The guards stood there like rocks. Hitomi didn't know whether she should say something now or wait until Van noticed them. It would be more polite to wait. She waited about three minutes. Nothing happened. Van was scribbling something onto a scroll. Goofy fell asleep standing up and Donald muttered something to himself. She gave a light cough. Nothing happened. So, she coughed harder. The guards started staring at her. Ruhm was getting annoyed as well. Instead of waiting politely for Van to finish his work, he walked forward, shocking the guards with his boldness, and slammed his palms onto the hand carved desk.

Van looked up. Ruhm's face was only inches away from his, and he didn't look particularly happy.

"Ruhm? What is it that you want?" he asked, standing up straight.

"We need to speak with you," he said.

"We?" Van asked.

Ruhm moved aside. Van's jaw nearly dropped, but he managed to keep is kingly composure. Standing near to the door was Hitomi! And two other guys, he noticed, but it was still her! He was so shocked to see her that he stood stiff and rigid like a piece of steel.

"Van?" she said. "Are you ok?"

He hesitated before opening his mouth. "Are you really you?"

She appeared a little confused by his words. "Since I last checked," she replied. "It's nice to see you again, Van."

She was still the same as before, except a little tired looking, though she didn't seem to act like it. She gave him a little smile that seemed to say, I'm glad to be back.'

"Young lady!" One of the guards said. "You will address the King by his proper title!"

Before she could react, Van spoke for her.

"That won't be necessary. She is an old friend. She may address me however she pleases," he said, giving her a warm smile. "You may go now." The guards said nothing. They turned about and walked out the door quietly. He laid the papers aside on his desk.

"Lord Van, these three, well two, and Hitomi have come for your help," Ruhm said.

"These two?! Hey! How come we don't have our names mentioned?" Donald shouted.

"Because he knows Hitomi. Not you," he explained, turning to Van. "May I introduce King Mickey's court! Donald Duck and Goofy."

"I've not heard of such a court, but you are welcome here," he said.

"May I also introduce King Van of Fanelia," he said.

"Your Majesty!" Goofy bowed.

Donald stood there. "Whatever..."

"You'll have to excuse Donald. He hasn't been in a very good mood since we arrived," Goofy explained.

"Why should I be?! We're wasting time! We've found the Key now let's go find our King!" he shouted.

"Calm down," Ruhm said.

"The key?" Van asked.

Ruhm lifted Hitomi's arm up so that Van could see the Keyblade. His eyes widened in shock, or surprise. She couldn't really tell. All that was sure was that Van knew what it was that she was holding.

"It's. . . here!" he exclaimed.

About that moment Merle ran in. "Lord Van!" She shouted. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched the cat girl. Her jaw nearly dropped as she took in the people standing in the room. Namely one. _Hitomi? How did she get here?_

"What are-? How did-?" she stammered. "Are you really you?!" She nearly shouted.

Hitomi rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's me, Merle."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, "and who are they?"

"We were actually just about to get to that," Ruhm said. "Lord Van, winter is settling quickly this year."

"I know. It began snowing just yesterday, didn't it?" He walked to the front of his desk. "It is odd, but why is that important?"

"I told you something was wrong, Lord Van." Merle sulked. "Something's making it snow early. I knew it! It's connected to that feeling I had..."

Hitomi gazed at Merle, trying to interpret her meaning.

"I know this makes gathering food difficult, even for you Ruhm, but the snow stopped falling early this morning," he said.

"It has, but there's more than that," Ruhm began to explain.

"Oh yes, the Keyblade. I thought that was just a story my mother told me." He leaned against the hard wood. "It's been found." 

"Wait.." Hitomi began, "Ruhm learned about this from their king, and you know this from your mother?" She was puzzled. "How did that work out? Did you know that Van knew the entire time?!" she exclaimed.

"Do you remember when I told you that this story was older than Atlantis?" She nodded. "As it turned out, Lady Varie even knew the tale. It was passed down since the time Atlantis existed. Although not widely popular among Draconians, she still thought it had some importance to it. That all occurred when their King had visited. It was quite a while ago, and he was a young ruler at that. Lord Van was only about five when he came." He paused, letting some questions come in.

"How come I don't remember him?" Van asked.

"Because, Lord Van, that day when he met your mother and I was the last day we ever saw of her. She went off into the woods where the dragons nest, and you were simply back at the castle." That was a painful memory for Van. He cringed upon hearing about that fateful day. "I'm sorry," he appologized noting Van's expression. "Hitomi," he started anew, "something happened on the Mystic Moon. Can you tell us what you saw?"

"Right now?" she asked.

"Yes. It would help us to better understand," he glanced at Merle and then Van, "what's happening now."

Hitomi shrugged. She didn't completely understand what had happened that night. The way it all occurred was so unnatural that she couldn't believe it. Nonetheless she proceeded to tell the events of that night. She recalled the details so well that it almost frightened her. Everything from the strange feeling at school when she felt winter settle in as quickly as it had on Gaea. She told about how her world seemed to be ripped apart from under her with particular detail. The part that hung on her the most was the disappearance of Yukari. That was strange. She thought to herself, if it had really happened, did Yukari manage to escape? When she was finished it was minutes before she got a reply. Her audience was very quiet. Even the loud one, Donald, didn't say anything.

"Merle was right..." Van murmured.

"This confirms that there is a greater power at work." Ruhm said.

Hitomi fell into a chair behind her. "How can we be sure that what I saw actually happened?" She asked.

"You have the Key," Ruhm pointed out.

"Great. . ." she sounded despaired. "Now what am I going to do?"

"You can come with us!" Goofy said again.

"Yeah!" Donald said.

"What?" Van became defensive.

"We need to go find our King. He told us to find the Key. When we find him he'll be able to tell us what we need to do," Donald explained.

"Everything will be clear when you find your King, huh?" Van said in disbelief.

"It makes sense, Lord Van," Merle said. "That their King would know what to do. He knew about all this before it happened... I'm worried."

"Merle, it'll be all right," Van reassured. "You're King really knows what he's doing?" he directed the conversation to Donald.

"That's what we think," Donald said. "He left without telling us. He left a note behind that told us what to do."

"There's more than that," Ruhm began. "It would benefit us more if you were to search out Ansem's report."

"Whose report?" Van asked.

"Ansem. He wrote a report on creatures called Heartless. Surely you knew about them?" he asked. Van shook his head. "Well, Lord Van, they're monsters that seek to devour the hearts of all worlds. If we had that we would know how to get rid of them. They got to the Mystic Moon and . . . it sounds like they dismantled it."

At hearing dismantled,' Hitomi really felt at a loss. Her world was gone. You couldn't rebuild planets! She felt overwhelmingly hurt. Her family, and everyone she knew was gone with her world. She'd never see it again. . . And it was that thought that stung more than anything she had ever felt in her entire life. She felt the tears inside well up inside. She didn't really want to cry, but after what happened that's all she felt she could do. Her world was gone and it couldn't come back. . . could it? She'd like to think that. It made her feel better and gave her the strength to hold back her tears. 

"There are more worlds besides the Mystic Moon?" Merle questioned.

"Why not?" Ruhm said. "It's quite a possibility that if Gaea exists and the Mystic Moon exists other worlds may exist as well."

"Exactly!" Donald said. "We come from another world too!"

"Not Gaea or the Mystic Moon?" Merle asked.

"Nope," Donald said.

"What's your world called, then?" The cat-girl closed the door behind her.

"Disneyland!" Goofy chimed in.

"That's a stupid name!" she said indignantly.

"What kind of a name is Gaea' or The Mystic Moon?'" Donald retorted.

Merle didn't say anything. She just stuck her tongue out at Donald and turned her back to him with a hmph!'

That moment seemed a little weird to Hitomi. Though the subject of other worlds was something that was studied back home, she wasn't sure she really believed in it beyond Gaea. 

"Dismantling an entire world? That seems a little.." Van began.

"Farfetched? I know. However, it did happen and Hitomi here is the only survivor." Ruhm rested his arm on top of the chair.

"I don't think so," she said. "Before it all went dark, Yukari looked as if. . . I think she escaped." 

"How can you be sure?" Ruhm asked.

"Who's Yukari?" Van asked.

"She's my best friend," she replied solemnly. "I'm not sure, but I think she did escape. Not everyone could have been killed by those creatures. Could they?" she asked.

Ruhm didn't know how to answer her question. He guessed that it was possible that others might have escaped, but where they would go was another question begging to be answered.

"Well, if your friend did escape we might find her too," Donald said.

"Really?" Hitomi asked.

"Anything's possible," Goofy said.

"You know what, we'll help you find her!" Donald exclaimed.

"You will?" her despair leaving her.

"Of course!" Goofy shouted. "Let's go!"

"Go where?" she asked.

"To another world of course! Our King's not here so we gotta search somewhere else." Goofy replied.

"I can't just leave now! I just got here!" she cried.

"Well, we can't leave without you, and we do need to find the King and that report. . ." Goofy trailed off.

"What about your friend?" Donald asked. "If she's not here, she could be somewhere else."

That was a possibility she hadn't really considered, but there wasn't any proof Yukari hadn't come to Gaea. She could be wandering around in Asturia or Freid.

Van got off his desk. "What does she look like?"

"That's a silly question," Merle said. "She'll stick out just like Hitomi!"

Merle's comment helped to lighten the mood in the room. Van wasn't as defensive as he was before, and Hitomi didn't look so blue anymore. Ruhm and the remaining people looked a little confused by the remark for one reason or another.

"I'll help look for her," Van volunteered. 

"So, maybe a brief description would help us find her," Ruhm also volunteered.

"She's about my height. Long red hair, well, longer than mine anyway. When I saw her last she was wearing kind of a long, beige jacket, similar pants, and a red shirt. Like Van's," she explained.

"How soon must you leave?" Ruhm asked Donald.

"As soon as possible," Donald said.

"Well, then maybe you can leave today," he suggested.

"Today?!" Van and Hitomi said in unison.

"We can't wait much longer," Donald said sorrowfully.

"I don't know if I should," she leaned back. "I think I should look around on Gaea for Yukari first."

"But we can't waste anymore time!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yeah, the clock's workin' against us! And we need the Key bearer!" Goofy gestured to Hitomi.

"Why don't you just take the Key?" she asked.

Ruhm wrenched the Keyblade away from her. He held it and swung it around like a sword. The Keyblade vanished from his hands and back into Hitomi's.

"Obviously you are the only one fit to hold the Keyblade, Hitomi," he said.

She wished she didn't hear that. It would be such a burden to carry this around all the time. With those awful monsters coming after her for just having it, she wished it hadn't chosen her. 

"Please consider coming with us," Donald pleaded.

They waited for a reply from her. She turned her head away from them. Their faces plummeted. She didn't really want to leave with them. She hardly knew them. Outside the sky darkened with the room. She got up and walked out of the room, slowly and quietly closing the door behind her.

Everyone watched as she departed. Van didn't like seeing her like this. He followed, though not as quietly as he could have, swinging the door wide open. He paused in the hall. He watched as she just rounded the corner before he continued his pursuit. 

She heard someone running after her. She just wanted to be alone right now. She turned her head briefly to see who was coming after her. It was Van. She began running. She ducked out of the nearest exit she could find. It led into a garden behind the castle. She was able to get away for a while at least. She needed time to be alone, to get away from the extra pressure she had felt while sitting in that room. She knew Van meant well, but after all that had happened, she just wanted some time to herself. She felt bad for leaving everyone like that. Even Donald and Goofy whom she had scarcely met. She had felt bad for not responding to them the way she did. She just needed a moment to herself to try and understand once and for all what had happened. She would then go back and apologize.

Sitting upon a nice round stone in the garden, she began to let her troubled mind wander. All the while she was thinking about the past events she began to cry. Alone she was able to let her tears flow freely without anyone giving pity to her. While she cried into her hands she hadn't noticed the bushes rustle. Something was there, but she wasn't aware of it.

Van was secretly watching Hitomi from behind a tree the entire time. He knew how she felt in some respects. His world wasn't destroyed, but his country was. He could understand the sorrow and frustration of losing something like that. His heart ached to see her like that. He decided he would let her be for the moment and let her have her time alone. Standing there, he felt as if he should go out there now and offer what comfort he could. Then he heard a rustle in the bushes. He looked for the source of the noise. A few yards from where Hitomi was sitting a black creature emerged. At first, Van couldn't distinguish what sort of creature it was. It slunk over to Hitomi ever slowly. It began to take shape right in front of him. He didn't recognize what it was, but he didn't like the way it was crawling over to her. It was creeping up upon her so quietly as to not be noticed by her. As it got closer and closer more of the same creatures began to crawl towards her. He grabbed onto the hilt of his sword; still keeping it sheathed, he ran over to her. 

"Hitomi!" he shouted.

She looked up. Her eyes still red and puffy from crying suddenly widened when she saw the dark creatures all around her again. They had surrounded her on her rock by this time. Van came from behind slashing through the horde of shadows. He reached out to her. She reached for his hand hoping she could take it. As their hands clasped, Van pulled Hitomi to safety, and continued to cut his way through the shadows. They had multiplied like mad! It seemed that every time Van stabbed one through five more appeared.

"Hitomi! Lord Van!" Donald and Goofy shouted, running to their aid.

Goofy ran to Hitomi's other side, and protected her with his shield. Van defended her with his sword, still cutting down every creature that came up to them. Even though she was frightened of the shadows she didn't enjoy being sandwiched between Van and Goofy either. There were occasions when her two protectors became so close that they nearly cut off her breathing.

Even with all their tremendous effort to help her the only one to turn the tide in the fight was Donald. He held up his staff and brought down a great force of lightning upon the shadows. Most were destroyed, but the lingering few grew more hostile. About five tackled Goofy and three others dragged Van to the ground. They fought furiously against the tide, and that only made a marginal difference in their strength.

She had to do something to stop this! She did the only thing she really knew to do. She used the Keyblade as a golf club and hit the monstrous shadows off of Van and Goofy. Coming in contact with the creatures produced a curious effect. It seemed to weaken them when it touched them. The same shadows came back, but slower than before. Van and Goofy were able to destroy them effortlessly. She began to realize that this key was truly a weapon against the shadows. She could use it to forfend these dark creatures.

Moreover, Donald and Goofy had come to help her and Van. She had thought them to be selfish, but she felt that if they really were then they wouldn't have helped her. Least of all Van, who didn't have much to do with what they wanted, which was the Keyblade. 

In mere seconds the shadows faded away. Donald came running up to them. His was a look of relief.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Hitomi nodded. "Thank you, for helping us."

"No problem!" Donald crossed his arms proudly.

Goofy walked up from behind. "We didn't realize how sad you were, Hitomi," he started. "We can't leave without you, ya know. It's your choice and you can take all the time you need to think it over."

His words were kind and his thought made her feel a little better. It still hurt to think about what had happened, but that was in the past. Although it still hurt to think on it, she had to go on. She decided that she would go with them.

"Are you sure?" Goofy asked.

She nodded. "I am. I'll have to go to forfend these creatures from attacking anyone else."

"Are you sure, Hitomi?" a concerned Van asked.

She gave a slight nod. To Van, she still looked a little distressed. He could understand the kind of duty that went with the Keyblade, but he wasn't sure if Hitomi could handle it. She was a strong willed girl, moreso than any other he had met. She had an incredible sense of independence, but he wasn't sure if she really had the power to defend herself.

"Van, don't worry about me. I'll be fine, just like before," she said with confidence, though it wasn't convincing. Her expression had dropped again. "When do we leave?" she asked Goofy.

"Anytime you want to go," he said.

"But you can't go looking like that," Donald said. She listened. "You gotta be like us. No sad faces, ok?"

"You gotta be happy!" Goofy shouted with glee.

"Happy?" She didn't know how she could be happy. It would be hard to think of anything that would make her happy, except to perhaps see her best friend again. Bringing up sudden energy she plastered a cheesy grin on her face.

Stunned. That was what they were. Stunned. Everyone, including Van, had a blanking expression upon their faces. Then, suddenly, everyone started laughing.

"That's really funny!" Goofy said. As if it needed to be said.

"How are we going to get to other worlds?" she asked.

Donald pulled out the energist. "With this."

"We were told that they were here on Gaea. We don't know much about em, but we do know they come from dragons," Goofy said.

"It seems your kingdom is quite resourceful and well informed," Van said. "When are you going?"

"I think we should go now," She said. "Those same monsters have come here already. We need to find a way to stop them a soon as possible. I don't want to see what happened to my world happen to Gaea."

"But you don't have any provisions or supplies to aid you on your journey. Can you not wait at least a couple hours to get something together? I don't want you to go unprepared, Hitomi," Van had a funny way of saying or showing that he truly cared for her. He really wanted to go along to help protect her but he'd already promised to look for her friend on Gaea.

"I suppose there's no harm in bringing some food along," she followed Van back into the castle.

**

Coming out to the gardens again, with a bag of jerky, biscuits and water pouches, they were preparing their farewells. It wasn't certain if she would return to Gaea again for quite some time, and Van still wasn't ready to let her go just yet.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty! We'll take care of Hitomi and make sure nothin' bad happens to her too!" Goofy said, standing right behind her.

"I would hope so. I wish you all well on your journey, especially you, Hitomi," he finished with a smile.

"Thanks, Van. We'll try to be back as soon as we can," she reassured him.

"I don't want you to hurry, that report is vital to our survival," he reminded her.

"I know. I'll see you again, soon, Van."

"Are you ready?" Donald asked.

She nodded. Goofy tightened up their bag of provisions and slung it over his shoulder. They stood together in the center of the garden. Donald raised the energist above his head and Hitomi and Goofy waited, a bit on the nervous side for the light to come upon them. A beating inside the energist grew in sync with the hearts of the three in the room. The warm, familiar glow of the light descended and they were gone.

  
***

I appreciate all those who took their time to read and review. Really! It's a solid thing to do for an author. I've been spending most of my time revising all six uploaded chapters, so chapter seven will be late. I took the liberty of taking down the previous six chapters in order to upload them in the order that I finish revising them. Meaning Chapter Two: Wonderland is on its way.

I want to give a special thanks to LacanPanother, the annonymous reviewer, who helped me most by pointing out my errors and then lending me a hand to fix them. Thanks!


	2. Wonderland

KINGDOM ESCAFLOWNE

AN: Welcome to Chapter Two. As you will see, the world of Wonderland has been manipulated to fit this fanfic. Complete with everything that makes it Wonderland! Chapter Three is currently underway and should be polished off this July. Enjoy the revised Chapter Two. Other than that, there's not much to take note of.

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, Kingdom Hearts, or Disney

characters of any sort.

***

" . . . One who knows nothing can understand nothing . ."

Chapter Two: Wonderland

Hitomi wasn't sure how long she was without contact of solid ground, but when they finally landed she was ever so grateful! To her knowledge it was the few landing where she didn't fall flat on her back. She and Donald touched down on their feet, while Goofy landed on his stomach. Looking around, she was able to pick up that it was night time, they were in the middle of a forest, due to all the trees, and that it was very cold. She could smell the moisture in the air, though there were no clouds to be seen. She could not see two worlds above and that was a first sign that they were indeed off of Gaea. So then where were they?

She spoke to Donald. "Where are we?"

"I. . don't know." He appeared worried.

Goofy picked himself up and dusted his clothes off. He looked about as confused as Donald. This made Hitomi feel compunct about their situation. She didn't want to think of the worst, but at this moment her mind was on anything but good thoughts. Thinking back to that night and its events that were scarcely twenty-four hours old, only served to worsen her mood. As she started to break down, Goofy came up suddenly, that distracted her for a moment.

"Look-y over there!" Goofy pointed in the direction of a wandering white rabbit.

This wasn't an ordinary rabbit, she knew. No rabbit she had ever seen wore a waist coat and glasses, unless it was like the beast-men back on Gaea, and it wasn't. She observed that he was walking along very casually. Until he took out his pocket watch and panicked.

__

Now, what would his problem be? she thought. As she watched the odd looking rabbit scurry off out of their sight, Hitomi felt curiosity drive her to follow the rabbit. It was the first similar feeling that took her back to a better place in time, when she first ran into Van on the track and all she could do was stare at him with curiosity. She took off following the forest trail to the clearing where they saw the rabbit. Down another trail, Hitomi could see a small figure in the distance. She started following the rabbit again.

"Wait! Stop!" Donald shouted, catching up with her.

"What?" she asked.

"We can't allow you to meddle in other worldly affairs," he said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"We cannot get involved and mess up the way these worlds work!" Donald shouted, his anger boiling.

"We need to ask him where we are," she said in her defense before adding; "How else do you expect us to find your King if we don't ask some of the locals if they've seen him?"

__

And you wouldn't be able to ask anyone anything if it weren't for this energist, Donald thought angrily. He then sighed and let her continue the pursuit. There weren't many other options to be had at the moment. She raced off after the rabbit.

__

For a chubby bunny, she thought noting his round shape, _he sure can pick up speed. _She didn't tire or slow down in her pursuit. She shouted after him to stop so she could talk to him, but the rabbit did was shout I'm late!' all the time. Down the dirt path, and round many bends and curves the rabbit ran at top speed. There was a lot of dust kicked up from the rabbit's heels and Hitomi's that it blinded Donald and Goofy as they struggled to keep up with her. Closing in the distance was a hill side. In the hill side was a rabbit hole. The rabbit was only a hop, skip, and jump away from a sanctuary Hitomi could not enter. She shouted at him one last time, and saw the rabbit dart down the hole. She slid to a stop on the dry dirt path. As soon as the dust settled on the ground again, Goofy and Donald had finally arrived.

"Oh, darn.." Donald panted, "the hole's too small for us to fit through." He and Goofy turned around and began heading back. Hitomi grabbed the collar of his shirt and forced him to halt.

"Do you have any suggestions then?" Hitomi gave him a stern look.

"We should try to find another place with someone we can talk to." He'd made a lot of sense for quite sometime since they left, and Hitomi knew it. 

Hitomi and Goofy followed on the path. Although it started in a clearing from the rabbit hole, they quickly ended up in a dense forest again, though they still remained on the path. It seemed like hours passed as they walked on hoping to find some sign of civilization. The forest was dark and cold. As she walked through it Hitomi began to feel as if she was being watched. She couldn't tell what could be watching her, for it was too dark to see anything but the path and the gray shine of the old trees. Now and then they heard strange sounds in the forest that sent chills down Hitomi's spine. On one occasion when they heard a particularly loud screech, Donald jumped on and grabbed hold of Hitomi's leg, which then caused Hitomi to jump with fright and trip. She managed to land on her face, but Goofy was kind enough to help her and Donald up. The screech turned out to be nothing more than a bird. It was very dark now and there was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Many times when they heard these sounds it was hard for them to contain the urge to scream or shout in surprise, for the forest seemed dead in a way, though the trees did not look dead. On the path ahead they spotted the same white rabbit darting off.

"It's him again!" Hitomi shouted. "Wait! Stop!" she called after him. The rabbit seemed to ignore her, for he didn't even slow down. Hitomi ran off after him. The chase was fairly short. The rabbit rounded the bend in the path, where she lost sight of him. When she got around the bend, he was gone. She stopped and looked all around, but she did not see any trace of the rabbit. It was far too dark to see any footprints on the ground. The soil was fairly hard, and the rabbit was small. Chances were he couldn't have left foot prints to follow anyway. 

She, Goofy, and Donald had come to a small clearing in the forest at the end of the path. All sides were walled by trees save for a small opening where the path lay. In the middle was a stone that looked like it had been sitting there for quite some time. It was rounded and smooth from time and weather and it had moss growing on it. Hitomi decided she was tired from all the walking and running, and sat down upon the stone to rest. Goofy and Donald joined her on either side.

Hitomi sighed, and let her face rest in her hands as she brought her knees up to her chest. _What are we going to do now? Should we keep going? Of course we should... I feel so lost though,_ she thought. It was very quiet, and very dark. As they sat there it seemed to get darker and quieter. Then her ears caught the soft humming of a tune. As it got louder she realized that it wasn't humming, but singing. She could hear words, but they were not loud enough for her to make them out. Someone was out there.

"T'was brilling . . ." sang the voice.

"Do you guys hear that?" Hitomi asked, standing up in alert.

"Hear what?" Donald asked.

"There's someone out there . . . singing," she said. She motioned with her fingers to her lips for them to be quiet while she listened to the strange song.

She could now hear the words, but they did not make any sense to her. First the voice sounded like it was near the path and she walked over there to see if she could find who the voice belonged to. As soon as she did that, the voice jumped right behind her. Donald and Goofy followed her. She guessed by their body language that they too heard it and were listening for the direction in which the voice came. They walked to an old tree where it sounded like the voice was coming from. The voiced then jumped to their far right. When they went over there it then jumped to their left. Before they could get over there the voice was behind them again, and then in front of them. Hitomi stopped in the center of the clearing and waited for the voice to change direction again. She looked up to the tree in front of her. Sitting on a limb was a smile. The three jumped back upon seeing this. Eyes then appeared to accompany the smile.

"Second verse," the mouth said. A body began to appear all around the mouth and eyes to form the shape of a cat.

Hitomi stepped forward. "I see now, you're a cat."

"A Cheshire Cat." He politely doffed his ears, shocking Hitomi, and went back to his singing. "T'was brilling and slithy toves. Did grye and gimble in the abe. All mimsy were the borogoves. And the Mome Raths outgrabe."

"I liked the song, Mr. Cheshire Cat," Goofy complimented.

"Thank you. Were you folks in the need of some . . . _help?_" he stressed the last word a bit before laughing.

"Yes, we are. How did you know?" Hitomi asked.

"The Cheshire Cat knows all, but doesn't always tell all," he grinned at them.

"Will you help us? We need to know where we are," Hitomi explained.

The Cheshire Cat frowned a bit. "It's very rude to ask for help and then assume you are getting help."

"I thought you implied that you were here to help us," Hitomi said in her defense.

The Cat grinned again. "Implied what?" 

"That you were here to help," Hitomi said.

"What help?" The Cheshire Cat asked.

"Didn't you just ask us if we need help?" Hitomi asked him.

"I did?!" he shouted gleefully, jumping down in front of Hitomi.

Donald tugged on Hitomi's jacket. "Come on, he's not going to help us."

"Don't go yet. I may just help you out. You want to know where you are? I can show you the way to someone who can tell you." The Cheshire Cat disappeared in a puff of smoke and sat again on the tree branch.

"You will?" Hitomi's spirits lifted.

"If you go that way, you'll find the Mad Hatter." He pointed left into the thicket. "If you go that way," he pointed right, "there's the March Hare in that direction."

"Well, we're in kind of a hurry so which is closer?" Hitomi asked.

"Then you can see the Queen of Hearts. She's much closer and I believe the March Hare and Mad Hatter are joining her court today." The Cheshire Cat grinned.

"Which direction does she live in?" Hitomi asked.

"Well," the Cat said, "some go this way, some go that way. I prefer to use the short cut." He leaned on a branch and a doorway in the tree in front of them opened. Inside it was daytime, and through the doorway they could see green grass and hedges all around. Some of the arching hedges were in the shapes of hearts. Hitomi looked back up to thank the Cheshire Cat, but he was gone. She looked to see where he could have gotten to and didn't see him. Goofy and Donald were already in the garden and walking off without her.

"Hey! Wait for me!" She ran in after them.

"We were waiting. We just decided to wait here for you," Donald said.

She didn't argue with him. She took the front lead again and began wandering through what was a giant hedge maze. The scenery they were now in was fresher than the woods they were lost in. It was brighter, greener, and far more welcoming in a way. The hedges were full of life in contrast to the forest they were walking through. Then they heard some shouts near by. They followed through the hedge maze in the direction of the sound.

__

Could that be the Queen's court? Hitomi thought, as she began running through the maze. She saw another heart shaped arch and slowed down to walking again. She crept close to the corner and leaned in a bit to see for herself. The last thing she wanted was another awkward confrontation when she watched Van and Balgus practice their sword fighting. Then again, Balgus was very kind to her and there was a chance that the Queen would be the same. However, she could be wrong and this wouldn't be where the Queen's court was. She didn't want to upset anyone, or end up running for her life if they thought she was a trespasser. She did just sort of end up in the garden unannounced, so someone could very likely get the wrong idea.

Creeping by with the utmost silence she could; she peeked around the hedge to see what was there. Oddly enough, it looked as if there were a trail going on right in the middle of the whole garden. Sitting up on high was a fat, old woman with a face that could very well break a mirror. Below, taking the floor stand, was a little girl. She looked to be no more than eight-years-old, or so Hitomi assumed by the way she appeared. She was small, with blond hair and a blue dress; something rather uncommon anymore on the Earth. Over to their left on a stand was the rabbit. To the right was a very small man, wearing a crown upon his brow. _Could he be the King? _Hitomi thought. Her eyes then fell on the jury. Sitting in the box was a man with a large, green hate and another rabbit. _The Queen's court? _She observed carefully as to what was going on exactly. Then she went back to the woman. She then noticed the crown upon her head. _Yikes! Is that the Queen of Hearts? I suppose that would make the little man the King of Hearts . . ._

Donald whispered to Hitomi, "is that the Queen's court?"

"I suppose so," she replied. _How literal minded of The Cheshire Cat. _

"That's the girl!" the Queen bellowed. "She's the one who tried to steal my heart!"

"I can't be on trail for this!" The girl was talking more to herself than the rest of the court. Be that as it may, the woman sitting above heard her quite clearly.

"Now for your sentence!" she shouted again. "Off with her head!"

"STOP!" Hitomi dashed out onto the court floor.

"What is she doing?!" Donald cried in alarm.

Goofy merely shrugged and ran out after her. Hitomi stopped just behind the young girl, and Goofy and Donald did likewise behind Hitomi.

"She's not the one you want!" Hitomi tried to come up with a decent counter in the girl's defense as quickly as possible; the woman did not look very happy. "She didn't try to steal your heart. The one's who did that are.." Before another word could come out Donald stomped on her foot.

"Who tried to steal my heart?!" the Queen roared. "Was it you?" She pointed her heart staff at them.

"No, it wasn't us." Then Hitomi whispered to Donald: "Why won't you just let me tell her straight out?"

"Because," Donald whispered back, "we aren't supposed to meddle in the other worlds' affairs."

"How else do we explain this?" she asked quickly.

"Make something up," Donald suggested quietly.

"We can prove that she's innocent," Hitomi said.

"What about us?!" Goofy and Donald whispered harshly.

"If we capture the real culprit, will you let her go?" she bargained.

The Queen sat back and seemed to think it over. They waited patiently and quietly for the Queen to come to a decision.

"Fine. You have no more than thirty-minutes to prove her innocence," she answered.

"Thirty-minutes?!" Hitomi exclaimed.

"I'm being more than generous by letting you have the chance to save your lives. NOW GO!" 

They hadn't much of an idea of how mean the Queen of Hearts could actually be, but they guessed this was as good a chance as any, and Hitomi wasn't about to let an innocent person to be executed. 

"What have you done?" Donald cried.

"We can't just stay out of their affairs for too long, Donald. Especially when their problems are really ours." Hitomi thought painfully back to Earth.

"Don't worry, Hitomi!" said Goofy. "We'll back you up anytime."

The little King of Hearts appeared in front of them. He gave them a kind smile. "Now, now!" he said. "That way goes back into the garden. I know for a fact this happened in Lotus Forest, where Alice was," he gestured to the little girl then pointed over toward a dark wood that loomed in the distance. "You'll have to search over there." The King of Hearts then escorted them to the edge of the garden and their last thirty-minutes began to tick out.

**

Meanwhile, Van was pacing back and forth in his study. Ruhm and Merle tried to comfort him, but despite all their efforts, Van was close to becoming a nervous wreck. He was worried sick about Hitomi, although she had told him that she would be all right. In the end, nothing seemed right anymore. The weather hadn't changed much from when Hitomi had left. It was still dark outside due to all the cloud cover, but it was harder to tell whether it was day or night anymore. From the looks of it, the clouds seemed to want to pour down on the entire kingdom, but something held them back.

"Lord Van..." Merle began pacing beside him. "I know you're really worried about Hitomi, but you shouldn't be."

Van glared at Merle. His features softened a bit. He knew Merle was just trying to make him feel better. Ruhm then came forward.

"Lord Van, Hitomi is in good company. They wouldn't let anything happen to her," he reassured him. "After all, they didn't have to save you and Hitomi, if all they cared about was the Keyblade."

"I suppose so," Van sighed. "There must be something I can do," he sighed again. "Any word from the guards on the girl we're searching for?" he asked one of the guardsmen standing by the door.

"Nothing, sir," the guard replied.

Van walked over to his desk and took from under it his sword. He crossed the room to the door way. 

"I will take it upon myself to personally inspect my kingdom and surrounding villages to find this girl. Keep watch. When I return I want a full report of any other activities going on." Van then exited the room.

Merle and Ruhm followed close behind. Van was walking at a very brisk pace down the half finished hall. There was still some painting and varnish to be done on the walls, as well as some walls to still be put up. The floor was cluttered with dirt and wood chips. They passed more guards on the way out to the garden. Since the last incident with the dark creatures Van wasn't willing to risk any other chances. He then stopped about the middle of the garden to let Ruhm and Merle catch up.

"Lord Van, where are you going?" Ruhm asked.

"To look for Hitomi's friend. It's the very least I could do for her now. I don't feel like waiting in my study for word to come," he said.

"I know it's hard, but we have my men on it as well. You need not risk your own life," Ruhm said.

"She is important to Hitomi. With Hitomi away it is hard enough for her. I want to help her out by doing this. Just sending my men alone cannot be enough." He turned to them.

"Lord Van..." Merle said.

"Merle, I'd like you to stay and keep things in order for me," he told her.

"I want to go with you, Lord Van! Something might happen," she said, running to his side.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine and Ruhm will be with me. Please, Merle. This is very important," he said very gently to her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Merle nodded. Ruhm had a somewhat uncomfortable look on his face.

"When were you going to tell me that I was going to help you?" he asked.

"Ruhm, I require your assistance in searching for her. Will you aid me?" Van asked.

Ruhm chuckled a bit and nodded. "I will, indeed."

"Thank you, Ruhm," Van said.

"Lord Van, how do we plan to travel? On foot or on horse?" he asked. 

He saw Van had just begun to think about that. Then they heard something move in the bushes. Van and Ruhm drew their swords and Merle kept her distance from where the fight might take place; she wasn't going to let Van out of her sight. Van waited for the thing to make its move. Ruhm noticed that it was no longer in front of them, but behind. The creature then moved, and with such speed that Ruhm hadn't much time to warn Van after he dove out of its path.

"Lord Van, behind you!" Merle shouted.

Van turned and was knocked to the ground by something clad in iron. Van's reflexes pulled him back up into a defensive position before the creature had another chance to surprise him. He got a good look at it as it darted by again. It looked like a shadow. Not like the ones he had seen before, this one stood upright like a person rather than an insect. It also wore a soldiers helmet and appeared to have some oddly shaped clothing. The eyes glowed from the darkness a brilliant yellow. It had a sharp four claws on both hands; if you would consider them hands. It rushed Van many times. Each time Van blocked the creature with his sword. He never seemed to hurt it each time his sword came in contact with it. Van then charged the demon shadow as it came for him. The Keyblade wasn't here to weaken or destroy these monsters, but that would not matter so much this time to Van. He thrust his sword through the helmet of the Heartless when the shield of its face happened to be up and it vanished into dust.

Ruhm was fighting his own battle with the Heartless. Two others just like Van's had attacked the wolf-man. Van lunged at one and put his sword through its head. The same thing happened to this one just like the other. Ruhm's fury of fighting this creature peaked and he put his saber through the head of the Heartless.

"Where did they come from?" Van asked, searching around him to make sure no others were going to attack him.

"I don't know." Ruhm put his sword away. "It's possible that the Heartless may be taking Gaea apart as we speak. In that case, Gaea may have a matter of days or hours before it meets the same fate," Ruhm said gravely.

"No! It can't!" Van shouted.

"Perhaps there is a way to slow it down," Ruhm said to himself, recalling something he had learned from Varie long ago.

"Slow it down?" Van asked, overhearing Ruhm. "Why not stop it all together?"

"Van, there may not be a way you can stop the Heartless from invading. That task rests with Hitomi and her search for Ansem's Report," Ruhm said. "There may be a way we could buy her enough time to find it."

"How so?" Van sheathed his sword.

"Escaflowne," Ruhm said.

"What about Escaflowne?" Van said defensively.

"The Draconians held many secrets and told many stories, including the tale of the Keyblade. One of their secrets is Escaflowne. They were the true engineers of Escaflowne. They drew up the plans the Ispano used to create it." Ruhm came and took Van by the shoulders and walked him back into the castle.

"How could that be?" Van asked.

"Long ago, Varie told me a story that she heard when she was younger about the guymelef, Escaflowne. The story told of the Dragon Tribe, from which your mother's family was believed to have been descended from, ordered the Ispanos to build Escaflowne in preparation for a cataclysmic event. It's uncertain whether this or the Destiny War was what they meant. However, Varie did say that Escaflowne was created in order to protect Gaea." Ruhm paused when they got back to Van's study.

"You know there's more to Escaflowne than meets the eye. You've mentioned something of that a few times after you put Escaflowne to sleep. You told me once that you felt that Escaflowne was capable of being used more than just a weapon. Escaflowne may be the only thing standing in between life and death for us," he finished by clearing his throat.

"How do you know for sure? Escaflowne is an Ispano Guymelef, but were there not others built as well? How do you know that Escaflowne is the Guymelef in the legend?" Van asked.

"I don't. Although others were built, their locations are unknown. I can feel time sleeping away from us even as we speak," Ruhm replied.

Van didn't speak for the moment. He paused to consider what Ruhm had said. If it was true that Escaflowne was built to be more than a mere weapon, unlike his sword... However, he promised that Escaflowne would remain asleep. It was the best thing he could do to ensure a war free Gaea. Right now his duty was to find the girl, Hitomi's friend. He would only fight if he was attacked by the Heartless. The Keyblade wasn't the only weapon that could hold them back. Was it? He recalled each time his blade went through a Heartless. It went through when the masking shield of the helmet was up, revealing the darkness inside. Otherwise during the skirmish, Van could only keep the Heartless from doing any damage to him, not the other way around. It couldn't have been just that.

"Lord Van, we were lucky tonight. The next time we will not be so. These monsters change, they become stronger each time we see them. In order to protect Gaea and its people you may have to reawaken Escaflowne," Ruhm tried to reason.

"Since when did you become my advisor?" Van asked.

"Since your advisors were too afraid to come to your study. They don't like the cold weather," Ruhm said smugly.

"How exactly do you know all of this, Ruhm?" Van asked.

"I'm just a good listener, Van. Besides, good leaders arm themselves with knowledge, even if it's just some silly sounding story, it's good to know," Ruhm explained.

"I don't want to reawaken Escaflowne if I can help it. I made a vow, a promise before Hitomi went back, that Escaflowne would remain asleep and that Fanelia would be what my brother envisioned. I will not break it," Van said vehemently.

Ruhm stood there quietly. He didn't want Van to have to break his promise, but he couldn't make the decision for Van. It was his choice of what he'd do to aid his country and world. He wished he knew of a way to explain to Van that the situation was out of his hands; that this was no man with a soul to lose in battle, but a demon that cared for nothing that lived. Van was a firm and understanding King. He would make a choice before the end, and that may determine whether Gaea would last or not.

If Hitomi was successful she would prevent other worlds from coming to such destruction, but Van would have to help her by keeping the Heartless from destroying Gaea. Escaflowne has the power to defend Gaea in a time when catastrophe would be upon them. Ruhm decided he would try to reason with Van one last time. The hours were growing short, and he could not tell how long it might be before everyone would lose their hearts. It did not seem likely that Hitomi could make it back in time to save them.

**

A lotus was a kind of flower, Hitomi had heard. She thought it was a proper name for the forest they were in. There were giant flowers everywhere. The trees looked normal sized from the distance, but when they drew in closer they found themselves dwarfed by the roots. 

Hitomi sighed. She didn't know how they were ever going to find the evidence they needed. She didn't know how they were going to contain a Heartless either. There they were, though, in the middle of the woods searching for Heartless with only twenty minutes left on their clock. They couldn't fail here. Not now. Their journey had barely begun and they might very well let someone die, or get themselves beheaded. The Queen of Hearts wasn't all they imagined she'd be. Hitomi couldn't do anything but blame herself for the predicament they were in. It would have been simpler to let the girl get killed and then ask where they were. She now knew the name of the forest she was in, but she didn't know the name of the world. However, Hitomi wasn't the kind of person to let innocent people die if she could do something about it. She was going to try harder this time. She would save that girl's life and find Ansem's report, among other missing things. It occurred to her that a lot more was riding on her to pull through and be successful, and that there was no trophy for second place. 

"Where do you suppose all the Heartless have gone?" Goofy asked.

"I don't know. You'd think they'd be attracted to Hitomi for having the Keyblade," Donald replied.

"Maybe we ain't lookin' in the right place. What d'ya think, Hitomi?" Goofy asked her.

"They might be hiding in all the tall grass and flowers over there," she replied, pointing to a large thicket in front of them.

"Why would they be hiding?" Donald asked in disbelief.

"To ambush us. If they want my heart so much, wouldn't they try to be sneaky about it?" she reasoned.

"Someone's paranoid," Donald commented.

"I don't see why not. Those things are dangerous, you know. It wouldn't be wise to take chances," she retorted.

"Yeah, we don't want to be stupid and risk our necks!" Goofy said, unaware that Hitomi had just said the same thing.

They walked along, silent and wary of their surroundings for the most part. A hundred yards or so in front of them they saw a large thicket of flowers. It occurred to Hitomi that it would be a great hiding place for Heartless. She motioned for them to stop walking and had them huddle together.

"I think I've found a great hiding spot for the Heartless," she told them.

"Where?" Goofy asked.

"Over there." She pointed to the thicket.

"What are we going to do then?" Donald asked.

"We're going to go in a bring back a Heartless," she said.

"Aren't you the one who just said it wouldn't be wise to take chances," Donald asked.

"Yes, and we have less than thirty minutes to clear ourselves," she replied.

"All right, how do you plan to capture it?" Donald began to get steamed.

"Well, we could knock it unconscious and drag it back," Hitomi said, trying to think of something better.

"Maybe we could use some rope to make a net," Goofy said.

"Yeah, and all we need is the rope." Donald smacked his forehead.

"Let's find a Heartless first and worry about how to capture it later." Hitomi began walking off toward the flowers. Donald and Goofy shrugged and followed.

Inside the thicket they noticed how much lighter it was than out in the forest. It was refreshing, and quite relaxing. Hitomi didn't allow herself to be eased too much, it was of her best benefit to be wary of any sign of movement. She stood very still, and very serious looking. Just watching and waiting for something to happen. Her concentration of being still and serious was interrupted by Donald and Goofy's snickering.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"You are!" they both replied, still laughing.

"How so?" she asked again.

"You look so serious," Goofy commented.

"I am serious," Hitomi said.

"That's what's funny! You don't look like you, you look like a stiff!" Goofy laughed some more.

"Is that what I really look like?" she felt off ease.

Donald and Goofy nodded. She then felt something on her head. She quickly swatted it away like it was a bee or some other nasty insect. It flew off, and at first Hitomi thought it might have been a Heartless, but then she heard it whinny.

"Look-y there! A horse fly," Goofy said as it landed on his finger.

"You do mean a rocking horse fly,'" a voice said.

"Well, of course!" he said and the rocking horse fly flew off.

"Who said that?!" Donald and Hitomi were both on the alert now.

"Did I scare you? I didn't mean to," the voice said again. It had a rather soothing and pleasant sound to it. Much like the way Hitomi's grandmother sounded. Whether this voice sounded familiar or not, Hitomi was nervous that it might be something else. Like the disembodied voices she heard before going back to Gaea.

"Where are you?" Hitomi demanded.

"Right behind you," the voice said.

Hitomi jumped, and turned around to see a lovely, red rose. _Could that flower be talking to me? _The flower moved itself to be in eye contact with Hitomi. The rose spoke again.

"Why do you look a fright, child?" the rose asked.

"Uh, we were expecting something else..." Hitomi said, rather relieved.

The rose gave Hitomi a quizzical look and then went back to an upstanding position. Some of the other flowers seemed to have come to life as well. One violet gave the three a peculiar look, and the daisy just seemed curious.

"You don't suppose that these are flowers?" the daisy asked the rose.

"I don't know," the rose replied. "Why do you look at us that way?" the rose inquired Hitomi.

"Well, I've never seen or heard of talking flowers before," she replied.

"Maybe their beds were made too soft and they fell asleep," the daisy giggled.

"That makes a lot of sense," Hitomi said to herself.

All the flowers in the garden began to laugh. Hitomi couldn't tell if they were laughing at her, what she said, or both. The violet came down to Hitomi's eye level again and asked:

"What garden are you from, if any?" she asked rather suspiciously.

"I'm not from a garden, I'm not even a flower," Hitomi replied.

That turned out to be a mistake. Of course, Hitomi hadn't any idea of what she had said would make the flowers worry so. As soon as she mentioned she wasn't a flower panic had arisen. Flowers were frantically trying to figure out whether they had meant harm to their little garden or not. At last the violet had calmed the commotion and glared at the three.

"If you're not from any garden, much less a flower, then you must be a weed," the violet sneered.

"All right, once again," she said taking in a breath. "I'm not a flower or a weed. I'm not even a plant."

"Then, what are you?" the sneering violet asked.

Before Hitomi answered that she overheard the daisies talking. One whispered to another about the horrible black weeds that had been through the garden just moments ago. The other replied that the new weeds' didn't look like the horrible black weeds that chased the Alice weed through. The first one then confirmed that Hitomi, Donald, and Goofy were like the Alice weeds and that a weed was a weed. Then they said the best thing about weeds that Hitomi had ever heard. The horrible black weeds were chased out of the west end of the garden.

Hitomi finally said, "I'm leaving."

She ran heading west. Donald and Goofy followed, of course, though neither one had much of an idea of what Hitomi was thinking. However, Hitomi had the Keyblade and they were bound to follow it wherever it went. As soon as they got out of the garden Hitomi stopped to tell them what she had heard. 

"That's pretty good, but did you learn how we capture one and how we bring it back?" Donald asked, indignantly.

"No, I didn't . . . I think we'll find a way," she replied.

Donald smacked his forehead again.

"Maybe we could use one of them there leaves and tie em up!" Goofy suggested.

"That may just work!" Hitomi agreed.

"What?!?" Donald shouted. "Those leaves are bigger than you both!"

"Exactly! We could use a leaf as a net to catch the Heartless," Hitomi explained.

"All right, but where do you plan to get this leaf from?" Donald asked.

"That bush over there." She pointed right behind them.

"Gwarsh, do you think he'd mind?" Goofy asked.

"Well, try asking it first. You guys go get the leaf and I'll go find the Heartless," she told them.

"No, no, no! It would be better if you helped Goofy," Donald said.

"Why is that?" she asked.

"I have a spell that can freeze the Heartless. It would be easier to capture it that way," Donald explained.

"All right, I'll help Goofy," Hitomi said and went to help Goofy.

Donald was thankful to have a moment of peace. He wondered if it was a bit much to let the bearer of the Keyblade to actually lead the group. She didn't have that kind of experience and frankly Donald was a little worried about going in the wrong direction and getting into all sorts of unwanted trouble. Much like they were now. He would keep a close eye on her from now on. There would be no more repeats of this place anywhere else. Though now wasn't the time to let his mind wander to such matters. What was important now was finding a Heartless.

He hadn't noticed earlier, but the forest was very airy and had many interesting looking plants. The forest floor was devoid of any type of green except for some patches of exceptionally tall grass. There were some very dark spots off in the corners of trees, roots, and rocks. _They probably are hiding, waiting for us . . . watching us. _Donald felt very uneasy about his surroundings. Anything could emerge from the darkness at any given moment, and he wouldn't be ready to protect himself. He heard something move behind him. He turned around and there was nothing there. He heard it again, he turned around and didn't see anything. Behind Donald once again, a black form was taking shape, ever so silently. Donald's eyes darted from side to side and he began to quake with fear. _Where's Goofy when you need im?_

**

"This thing don' wanna budge," Goofy said.

"I know. Too bad this giant shrub isn't really alive, or we'd just ask it for one," Hitomi panted, straining her arms to free the leaf.

"Do ya think Donald's all right?" Goofy asked, letting go.

"I don't know... We'll go look for him as soon as we free this leaf." She pulled again, much harder than before. She saw Goofy, who appeared to be counting something. "Goofy, come on! Grab on, one more good tug ought to do it!"

Goofy stopped what he was doing and grabbed a hold of the other side. He pulled with all his might and Hitomi pulled with hers. As she pulled she got a worse feeling than that of strained muscles, but of something else. Her power to foresee things had yet to fully return, but she suddenly got a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. _Is Van in danger? _was her first thought. _No, no! It feels much closer than that. . . What is it?_ Then she thought of Donald. He was out there all by himself, there was no one to watch his back or anything. _We can't spend anymore time on this,_ she thought. Her first impulse was to leave the leaf, but they were running out of time! Then it struck her! _I could use the Keyblade to cut this free and then we could be off to save Donald, capture a Heartless, and then save that little girl. _She then thought it probably wouldn't work, but she would give it a shot anyway. She let go and went to the stem. She picked the Keyblade up high and swung it down with great force. The stem broke and the leaf was theirs!

Goofy pulled with such force that when the stem broke, the Knight went flying into a large root of the tree right behind him. Hitomi realized what had happened and rushed over to help him. Goofy wasn't hurt in the least, but a little more dazed than usual from his fall. 

"Are you all right?" Hitomi asked.

Goofy shook off his dizziness. "Yeah! Look-y here! We got it!" He pointed to the leaf, still clutched in his hand.

"Ok, come on! We need to go help Donald now! Bring the leaf with you!" She took off running in the direction Donald had taken.

Goofy trailed behind, though running, and brining the leaf with him. It wasn't easy though. The giant leaf had trailed behind him, and with one hand on the tip and the other firmly grasped on the stem, the leaf acted like a parachute, and slowed him down even more. He kept trying to keep up. He was one not to give up! Mickey had told him that when he asked Goofy several times to stop trying to help his chefs cook.

**

"Ahhhhhh!" Donald yelled.

Several armored Heartless surprised him, causing him to drop his staff. He ran from them and they pursued. They backed Donald against a rock, which was the size of a boulder to him, and trapped him there. Without his staff in hand he could not perform a spell to stop the Heartless or defend himself.

Hitomi and Goofy heard the Wizard's cries. Ahead they saw about five armored Heartless. They could see that these Heartless were much stronger than the lowly shadows they had encountered on Gaea. Hitomi saw his staff on the ground, unnoticed by the Heartless. She picked it up as she ran by. She stopped close enough to the Heartless to throw Donald his staff. She threw it over the Heartless to Donald. At the last second one of the armored fiends jumped and grabbed it away from the Wizard. Donald reached for it again, but the Heartless passed it along to another one of its comrades. Hitomi went to help him, but didn't realize that another was just behind her. As it got ready to pounce something told her that she should turn around. Then she heard a loud clang and saw Goofy's back. The Heartless slid off of the Knight's shield and crumpled to the ground.

"I'll cover you! Get back Donald's wand, staff... thing," Goofy ordered, as best he could. Now that the Heartless had Hitomi's full attention on one end, the others could easily attack her while her back was turned. Well, it would have been easier if Goofy wasn't there slapping them silly with his shield.

She dove off after the Heartless that had Donald's staff. The staff, again, was passed along to another Heartless. They were playing keep away. Donald and Hitomi waited for the Heartless to throw it in the air again and then one of em would catch it. Keep away was never much of a fun game. Donald crouched and waited while Hitomi went after the Heatless with the staff. As soon as it was airborne, Hitomi ran the Heartless through with the Keyblade in order to eliminate players. Eventually there would be one Heartless left, and one was all they really needed to prove Alice's innocence. Each time the staff was in the air, Donald would jump for it. He missed each time, unfortunately.

Donald was getting very tired from running and jumping so much. Goofy took out one of them as soon as it tossed the staff to another. With two remaining they began to run circles around them, throwing the staff back and forth as they did. Goofy took out the second of the remaining Heartless as soon as it threw the staff to its comrade. 

The Heartless then ran a couple of yards from Donald and paused. Hitomi began walking to the far edge, making sure the Heartless was paying attention to Donald and not herself. Donald understood what she was doing and threw a fit of loss over his staff to keep the Heartless focused on him. She snuck around until she was right behind it. Then she lifted the Keyblade up and smacked the Heartless' helmet just hard enough to knock it down.

Donald picked up his staff. Goofy was tying up the Heartless in the giant leaf. Finally having what they came for, the three headed back to the Queen's court to present their evidence. They hoped that they weren't too late.

**

They entered an ever silent and rigid court room. The girl, Alice, was no longer on the stand, but in a cage surrounded by cards. The three gulped fearing that they were too late. That all their effort was for nothing and that their journey would end before it barely began.

The Queen looked most unpleasant. She glared at them fiercely and pointed her heart shaped scepter at them.

"Present your evidence or lose your heads!" she bellowed.

Goofy was too scared out of what wits he had, so Donald and Hitomi carefully took the leaf-sack from him and opened slowly. The Heartless jumped out, knocked Hitomi to the ground, and began going after some of the cards. The cards held it off with their spears in the shapes of hearts and spades. Cards from opposite ends of the area came over to close it in. Sensing that it had no where else to go, it leapt up to where the Queen of Hearts was sitting. It then stretched out a claw to the Queen's chest. There was a bright red flash where the heart was. The Heartless was trying to steal the Queen's heart! 

Donald acted, not counting too much on either Hitomi or Goofy for assistance, and summoned the strength of fire to destroy the shadow in the helmet. He sent a bright, red flame forth. The Heartless sensed something coming and turned to see a ball of fire coming for it. It stopped trying to steal the Queen's heart. Instead, it tried to escape, but it was too slow and weak from contact with the Keyblade. The fire hit it and it burst into dust.

The Queen was in shock, but for only a moment or so. She recovered shortly after the demise of the Heartless, looking even more twisted with anger than before. She directed the end of her scepter at them once more.

"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" she shouted with all the fury and force her vocal chords would allow.

The three had hardly anytime to act. As soon as the Queen finished, a flurry of cards were up in the air, covering everything in sight. Straights of diamonds and clubs surrounded them. Hitomi could barely move. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something dark crawl up by Alice's cage. She wasn't sure of what it was, but at the moment she couldn't concentrate on that. A club had its spear pointed at her throat and another behind her. They would probably kill them right then and there if necessary, but the cards were trying to pressure them into going to the execution area, she guessed. Otherwise they would have been beheaded already. They had begun to move Hitomi away from Goofy and Donald and down a dark path in the garden.

"What are we gonna do?" Goofy whined.

"Follow my lead!" Donald said. He brought his staff low and cast a spell of ice over the cards that held him and Goofy. A layer of ice quickly swallowed the cards. They were then free to aid Hitomi, who was over a ways from where Donald and Goofy were. The cards that held her stopped, and began trying to arrest them. Donald cast the same spell, and another layer of ice covered the cards, stopping them in their tracks only mere inches away from them.

"Thanks," Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked around for Alice. She saw the cage was turned over, bent, and torn open. There was no one inside. _Where's Alice?_ It occurred to her that a Heartless must have come while the cards were trying to execute them. She couldn't think of what else that dark blur could have been. Donald's jaw had dropped when he too saw the empty cage. The two stood their wondering what could have become of Alice during all the chaos.

"Hey, that little girl's gone," Goofy said, noting the cage. Hitomi wondered how long it took him to get the message.

"Come on, there's still a chance she could still be alive," Hitomi said.

"Where do you think she could be?" Goofy asked.

Hitomi pointed down the dark path that the cards were trying to push her down. "I think they must have taken her that way, though I have a strong feeling that none of the cards took her."

"What do you mean?" Donald asked.

"I think the cards were trying to take us to a special field or something to behead us. They were trying to push me down there," she said, still pointing down the path.

"If the cards didn't take her, then who did?" Goofy scratched his head.

"It might have been a Heartless..." she said, trying not to picture the poor little girl in pain.

"How can we help her now?" Donald asked.

"If there's still a chance to help her, I think we should help her," she said. She then decided she would try to dowse again, to try and find her. It would be hard though. She pictured the girl in her mind, and strangely enough she saw a strange room. Everything inside it was gigantic, except for a strange wooden door. It was lined with orange and white tile, a brick fire place, a grandfather clock with rabbit ears, and a glass table with a single bottle sitting atop it. She then saw a faint image of the little girl on the floor. She didn't see any Heartless around at first, but then a dark image appeared and suddenly the image in her mind then disappeared without a trace. She opened her eyes, to have Goofy's staring back at hers at an uncomfortable distance. She jumped back quickly, as if he were a snake, coiled and ready to strike.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Fine.." she choked out. "I saw where she was, but . . ."

"But what?" Donald asked, wanting her to finish her thought.

"But, she's in a room I've never seen before. I don't know how to get to it," she said, feeling like admitting defeat was the only other way to go.

"Did this room have large furniture?" Goofy asked, suddenly behind the stand where the Queen sat.

"Yeah.." she replied.

"With a funny looking little wooden door," he continued.

"Yeah... How do you know that?" she asked.

He came out and waved to them to come over. "Look-y here!"

They walked over to see a large looking-glass. Rather than see her own reflection she saw the room he had described. _How. . ? It's that same room. How did it get inside the mirror? Or is there more to it than that? _she thought. Much of this new world wasn't what it seemed half the time. Like the Queen's court, which was actually a court room and then the talking flowers. There could very well be a lot more to this mirror than meets the eye. She reached out and gently touched the glass mirror. At first it felt like a solid piece a glass. Nothing appeared to be very special about this looking-glass, save for the reflection it held. Then her hand seemed to melt within the glass. Shocked, and surprised by this she tried to pull back on it, but her hand was caught inside the glass. She braced herself on the ground and pulled hard. The mirror pulled back, but with greater force than Hitomi had anticipated (in fact she didn't expect the mirror to pull back at all.)

"I'm stuck!" she cried. 

Donald and Goofy didn't know what to make of the situation when she began to be pulled in. Goofy grabbed hold of her arm. Donald pulled on her legs. Hitomi pulled as well, but the mirror only pulled back harder.

"It's not working!" Goofy shouted, straining to hang on to Hitomi and solid ground at the same time.

"The Keyblade!" Donald shouted.

With all the strain that had been put on Hitomi, she had let her hand fall loose and the Keyblade fell to the ground. She was unable to reach down and pick it up again. In a brilliant flash of light, the Keyblade disappeared from sight and did not reappear in her hand again. She had been concerned about not having the Keyblade again, but at this particular moment her attention was turned to the looking-glass. Her whole arm had been consumed by the mirror and it would be only a short time before the rest of her followed. She finally let her resistance go and fell within the mirror. Donald and Goofy, who were still hanging onto Hitomi, went with her. It was almost like plunging into a warm pool, but in slow motion. 

Inside the room was an identical looking-glass. The glass reflected the court yard in which the three were standing. As soon as Hitomi's hand was pulled in, the mirror's reflection changed. It became more like a pool of water with ripples in it. With the other half disturbed, the calmness of the other mirror's reflection was also disturbed. A bright, white light sprang forth from the glassy pool. In seconds Hitomi, Goofy, and Donald fell through onto the floor. The mirror's reflection restored to that of the court yard once again. With Donald and Goofy on top, Hitomi was once again the bottom of the pile. They got up and helped Hitomi up. She gave herself a quick dust off and looked around the room. She didn't see Alice anywhere at all.

"Look!" Donald pointed to the table in the center of the room. 

On top of a glass table was the Keyblade. At least it looked like the Keyblade. It was very small though. Next to it was a bottle that appeared to be empty. Hitomi picked it up and read the label. It said, "drink me." She put the bottle back down and examined the tiny Keyblade. She picked it up and held it between her thumb and forefinger. It certaintly looked like the Keyblade. Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of someone snoring. She looked around the room again. She didn't recall ever seeing anyone before. One loud snore caught her attention over to a tiny door. She got on the floor for another close inspection, the Keyblade held within her fist now. It was more the door knob than the actual door itself. It appeared to have a face and a mouth. The mouth was the keyhole and the nose was the knob itself. It was snoring away until Hitomi woke it up.

"Excuse me," she said.

The door remained asleep. Donald gently moved her out of the way and got down on the floor in the same position. "WAKE UP!" he shouted. 

The door's eyes shot open as if a bullet had been fired. It saw Donald and yawned. It looked at Donald again. "What do you want?" it asked and yawned again.

Hitomi nudged Donald aside so she could talk to the door. "Have you seen a little blond girl?"

The door yawned again. "Yes, I did. She was with a group of odd looking fellows. They left through my mouth. How terribly rude of them."

"They went through the keyhole?" she asked herself.

"They turned into a puff of smoke, as I thought they would, and they went right through me! They could have used the Key that appeared on the table to get out, but no!" The door went on about how terribly rude the Heartless were.

They had Alice, that much was confirmed. Where they went was a whole other matter entirely. Hitomi began to wonder how they would get through. It didn't seem possible. They were too large and the only exit was the tiny, upset door. 

"How do we get through?" she wondered aloud.

The door overheard this and replied: "Why! you're too big! Simply impassible."

"Impassible? Impassible's not a word. You mean impossible," she said.

"No, impassible! Nothing's impossible," the door chuckled.

"Could you tell us where we are?" she said changing the subject.

"Why are you wandering around without knowing where you are?" the door asked.

Hitomi didn't want to start up a chorus of her questions being answered with questions. They would go in a full circle before she found out anything she needed to know. Before they could go in a circle she decided it best to stop it then and there. She didn't want another Cheshire Cat.

"Could you just answer my question?" she asked as politely as she could.

"Sure!" the door complied happily. "What was the question?"

Too late. They had gone full circle. "The question is: Where are we?"

The door seemed to consider this for a moment. It paused for quite a while before answering, during which time Hitomi had hoped the door was thinking about how to answer her question.

"Did you ask the Queen of Hearts?"

"Well, no..."

"Then I can't help you." The door turned away from her.

"Well, what did YOU mean when you said nothing was impossible?" Hitomi asked.

"Just that," the door replied.

"How do we get through then?" she asked, sitting upon her knees.

"Try the bottle on the table," the door said.

Hitomi stood up and picked up the bottle once again. It was full of something this time, she could feel the weight of some liquid in the palms of her hands. Drink Me,' read the label. Things really weren't what they seemed in this place. Though she still wondered what drinking from this bottle would do. It was probably best to test this first and then ask questions later. She took a sip of the liquid from within. It was a swirl of different flavors, and not a one tasted bad together. Goofy held out his hand and Hitomi passed along the bottle. Goofy also drank some. Goofy seemed to savor the flavors, at first. Donald held up his hands to reach for the bottle. Goofy didn't see him. The Wizard had to jump up to snatch the bottle. When he drank it there was hardly anything left.

"Now what?" Donald asked.

As soon as he said that, Hitomi had a sort of sickly feeling in her stomach. She hunched over, hugging herself around where the pain was coming from in an attempt to relieve it. Everything around her blurred into a mass of different colors until no tangible item was distinguishable from another. She closed her eyes and concentrated on something else. Something from behind her caused her to jump, and when she did, the Keyblade fell to the ground. As small as it was she didn't think she'd have an easy time finding it, especially since the room seemed to be spinning. If she was poisoned then she'd have no chance of finding the Keyblade at all. All the sudden the pain stopped. It went away as if someone just flipped a switch to turn on a light. She opened one eye slowly, still in a hunched over position. Everything in the room was distinguishable. Nothing was blurring or spinning. She opened both eyes and stood up straight. She was about to breathe in a sigh of relief when she noticed the table had grown about fifty feet tall. Everything inside of the room was huge! She looked around for the Keyblade. It had landed right next to her and it now fit her size. Turning around she noticed the door. It was her size as well. Nothing grew, she reasoned, she shrunk.

Donald and Goofy were still trying to comprehend what had happened to them. She walked over to them; incidentally behind Goofy and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped in surprise and thought that it was a Heartless.

"Goofy," the Wizard began calmly, "if Hitomi was a Heartless she wouldn't bother tapping you on the shoulder, she'd just kill you!" he finished yelled at the poor, foolish Knight.

"You mean they would sneak up on us?" Goofy asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"You mean like that one?" Goofy pointed behind Donald.

He rolled his eyes and turned around. "What?!" he shouted and jumped back upon seeing the shadow slinking toward him.

"Come on! We can go through the door now!" Hitomi called over to them and ran to it. The door had fallen asleep again, that was evident from its snoring and closed eyes. She was just about to it when two more Heartless came up through the floor. She looked over her shoulder. Goofy and Donald we backing toward her, more Heartless had gathered around them. These were the shadow type Heartless, not the armored ones they had seen earlier. These were the very same ones Hitomi had encountered back on Earth. She began backing away from them. Her first impulse was never to fight back if that could be helped, but she was being backed into a corner, or rather Donald and Goofy. Pretty soon they had touched back to back and Hitomi noted that they were surrounded. The Heartless began to close in, but slowly. _What are they waiting for? They have us surrounded there's no way we could get away. Yet, they're taking their time._ She thought about this. Perhaps they were giving her an opportunity to strike at them. Would that be a fatal mistake? It was probably best not to try anything to ruthless, they may very well die.

"What're we gonna do?" Goofy whispered in a frightened tone.

"Donald, isn't there anything you could do?" Hitomi asked.

Thinking about it, Donald still had his time spell that would freeze the Heartless where they stood. However, he wasn't sure he had enough power for all of them. Stopping time took more power than forming ice did. He decided upon that alternative. Motioning once again, and calling forth his power he encased most of the Heartless in ice.

"That's the best I can do!" he shouted.

"That's good for now," she replied, moving through the ice statues.

Most of the Heartless were encased in ice. Something was strange about the ones that did remain. The Heartless weren't running wild, instead they were closing around them at a steady pace. It was as if they were concentrating on them. They seemed to be taking a very cautious approach. This seemed very unlike the way they behaved earlier. _They're different as if they've changed somehow. They seem like they are being controlled. Can that be? _Hitomi thought. She didn't know how to think like her enemy at all, but she thought that if the Heartless were just on a rampage then they wouldn't care how many were lost in the attempt to kill her. There was more to this than the Heartless simply wandering from one world to another devouring hearts. That would make Ansem's report all the more vital. If that were true, if the Heartless were controlled by someone else, then that someone wouldn't want them to find the report. It was long shot. Hitomi still doubted she could be right on that, but she didn't push that idea out. It would still be something to consider. After this was over, she would go back to Gaea and ask Van about it. He would know.

Then the Heartless froze. They stopped moving at all. It took a moment or two to be sure that the Heartless had indeed stopped moving, for they were taking their care to move as slowly as possible. Then the room began to shake violently. Everyone was knocked off their feet by the raging ground beneath them. The glass table fell over and shattered. She shielded her eyes from the flying glass with her arm. A small piece hit her forearm and embedded itself deeply in her muscle tissue. It was most painful. When a Heartless jumped her, her impulse was then to roll out of the way. She did without putting too much pressure on her arm, but then she had to get up and used both of her arms to push up. The muscle constricted, and tightened around the piece of broken glass. She cried out, but now able to stand up she was at a better advantage to defend herself. Donald and Goofy came to her aid and fought off the rest of the Heartless for her. She examined her arm and saw the shiny piece of glass, now mostly covered in blood, and decided then to pull it out. It stung like a bee sting and more. She got her thumb and forefinger fixed on the tiny piece of glass and pulled it out, dragging a bit of blood and tissue with it. There was a wave of relief, but it didn't last long before a great gust of air hit her open wound and stung her again. She set the Keyblade at her side and took out a bandana. She tightly wrapped it around the bloody mess and tied it off. It would hold in place and better protect it from infection for the time being.

Then she saw it. At first it masked itself as an earthquake, but she should have guessed when the table fell and broke. The table was well set in place, it would move around in an earthquake, but it wouldn't fall over, not like that. It was shoved over by the largest Heartless she had ever seen. She thought it was Heartless anyway, it didn't appear to be anything else. It was still cloaked, but Hitomi could see where it was now.

"What's goin' on?" Goofy whimpered, hiding behind his shield.

"It's a Heartless! I believe, and it's standing right there!" she pointed to in front of them. Goofy and Donald looked around for the mysterious Heartless. It took another monstrous step towards them and the room shook again. 

"Why you!" Donald ran out yelling, or screaming profanities, waving his wand around like a mad man.

Hitomi could see what the Heartless was going to do. She ran towards the angry wizard and pushed him aside just as the Heartless stepped down again.

She felt an incredible pain shoot through her arm again. She held it firmly, close to herself.

"Are you all right?" Goofy was standing next to them now.

"I'm fine," she insisted.

The Heartless threw off its cloak and could be seen by all. It was huge. It appeared to look like a clown, or a jester, adorned in cards and with balls to juggle.

"If it wasn't so big, I'd say that was stupid looking," Hitomi said before running to the other end of the room.

Donald nodded and ran with her. Goofy stood there a moment to ponder her words. Then the Heartless was about to take another step on Goofy when he snapped back to reality and ran back with them.

The other Heartless disappeared. It was them and the giant. It began to jump around the room, knocking Hitomi and the others to the ground and keeping them there. With the constant movement of the floor they were unable to attain their balance and have a fighting chance. The giant Heartless then stomped towards the three and they thought this was it. It's be over in a matter of seconds and all would be left of them would be a bloody pulp. The constant movement of the floor not only kept the three on their backs, but also brought them closer to the giant Heartless. It then brought it's foot down to crush Hitomi. She was a little too shaken to get up right away, so she brought up the end of the Keyblade to meet with the sole. It was as if the Heartless had stepped on a needle. It jumped back from her. When Hitomi did that, she felt a power arise within the Keyblade. It was warm, and soothing to the touch. Her arm had hurt a great deal at first when she steadied the Keyblade in a strong vertical position. As the Heartless came down to crush her the pain went away. The Keyblade sent a blast of power that pushed the Heartless off and weakened it's left leg. It kneeled down, unable to stand up. This gave them the opportunity to return the favor.

"Look, it's head." Donald pointed. "It's like an accordion."

"What about it?" she asked, taking the bandana off to see the wound of her arm.

"Accordions are soft instruments. They can be easily broken," Donald replied.

"Easily broken? Is that why the King can never find his accordion anymore?" Goofy eyed Donald suspiciously.

Donald replied smugly, "I was doing the Queen a favor."

"So, we go and wreck it's accordion shaped head and it will break or something?" she asked, clearing up Donald's message.

"You got a better idea?" he said, becoming defensive to any of Hitomi's remarks.

"No, no, but how do we do it? The head is still too high to reach," she asked.

At that point they watched as the Heartless began to move. It tried to stand up, but it's delicate leg collapsed and the brute fell on its face.

"Never mind," she said. She gave a good look over her injured arm and the wound had all but disappeared. What was left was a small, closed in scratch. She then began walking cautiously toward the fallen Heartless. Donald and Goofy right behind her.

The Heartless seemed pretty well knocked out. Donald proded it with his staff.

"I think it's dead," he said, while poking at it still.

"What happened to it?" Goofy whispered, afraid that it might wake up.

Hitomi recalled the events briefly in her mind, and the strangeness of it all became quite real. Showing a small smile she summed it up in five words; "The power of the Keyblade."

The Heartless began to stir. It propped itself up and looked straight at them. Keeping itself up on one arm, it grabbed Donald and held him tightly in his fist. It elevated its head high enough to just be out of either Hitomi or Goofy's reach.

Then Goofy seemed to have a brilliant idea. Without telling Hitomi what it was first, he picked her up and set her onto her shoulders. "Now we can reach it!"

She understood him, and too felt like they could turn this crisis into opportunity. That is until Goofy tried to walk up to it. He nearly lost his balance three times, and Hitomi was lucky that he didn't fall yet.

"Maybe I should carry you over," Hitomi suggested, trying to stay atop Goofy's shoulders.

"Oh, nonsense! I weigh more than you anyway!"

They managed to get there successfully, and in time too. The Heartless slowly began to squeeze the life out of Donald. They approached right underneath Donald and Hitomi pulled on his ankles until he came free. It was quite a bit more of a squeeze for Donald when Hitomi pulled, but at least he was alive. He then sat upon Hitomi's shoulders and the three staggered over to where the head was.

"I know just how to take care of this," Donald grinned cynically to himself.

The Heartless knew what was going on, and attempted to get up or move out of the way. It was already against the wall, and without much room to move with other pieces of furniture in the way, it was going no where fast. 

Donald was glad that the Heartless wasn't moving too far away. The closer Donald was, the better he could control the strengths and weaknesses of his lightning bolt. He summoned up a great bolt this time. The intensity of the power concentrated in his staff put a lot of extra weight on Goofy. He began to stagger backwards from the Heartless. If they kept going, they would eventually fall and the Heartless would have a great opportunity to kill them. Hitomi took let go of one of Donald's legs, and holding the Keyblade that she held tightly in place against Donald's leg and along her shoulder, she reached around her back and down Goofy's. She forced the long metal as it were a splint of some sort to push against Goofy's now hunched back to straighten it out. It worked, Goofy's back popped in line again and he staggered forward to the Heartless. Donald felt that he wouldn't get another chance to strike at the Heartless, he released the collected power in his staff and struck through the accordion head. It blew a great hole in it, and began to compress as if air was leaving it. The Heartless sank to the ground. Its body turned into dust, and crushed between its right palm and ball were a small stack of papers. As the dust began to fade away, Hitomi walked over to its remains and shifted through to pick up the papers.

It had writing on it that Hitomi could not read or decipher. She looked through each page. There were only three pages, and on that third page was a drawing of the shadow Heartless. 

"Could this be a piece of Ansem's Report?" she whispered, still looking at the three pages. It seemed too short to be the full report. 

"What's that?" The Wizard took the papers from Hitomi and looked through them. The little sketch of the shadow Heartless caught his eye. "Ansem?" He looked at it in disbelief.

"We should go back now and give this to Van." She slid the papers in her jacket and closed it up. "Now we won't lose them on the trip back."

"Lose what?" Goofy asked.

"Well, it might be part of Ansem's Report," she explained. 

"And if it is then we're one step closer to beating the Heartless and finding the King!" Donald and Goofy were so happy at that thought that they began to dance.

However, that feeling that something else was out there came back to Hitomi. It was that very same uneasy feeling she had when the Heartless didn't seem to be as brash as before. She felt that something else was out there, and that giant Heartless was one of its pawns. That unknown enemy. . .

***

End of Chapter Two.


	3. Neverland

KINGDOM ESCAFLOWNE

AN: Here it is, the long awaited third chapter. Just so you know, I'm still updating. I started this fic with the intention of finishing it and that's the way I'm going to do it. Even if the chapters' updates are a bit slow. It takes a lot of time to type this stuff, not to mention the writers block that hits every couple pages or so. I've got to say that I am satisfied with the way this story is turning out thus far. I'm glad to know that some other people agree with me.

I appreciate the reviews from all! GrrlN and MystLady whose real name escapes me (gomen ne). I must also thank MercuryDestiny and Angel-Fergie. I must clear up a little something that I've seen appear when people talk of the game Kingdom Hearts. That's the title, Kingdom Hearts, not Kingdom of Hearts. You can find lots of information concerning the game (and screen shots) at ign.com.

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, Kingdom Hearts, or Disney.

***

". . . A power sleeps within you. Give it form and it will give you strength."

Chapter Three: Neverland

Giving up wasn't something Hitomi was use to. She didn't want to throw in the towel yet. There was still a chance to find Alice. Donald and Goofy felt that her search would be in vain. If the Heartless truly did have Alice then there wasn't much they could do about it. Although they were all three inches high, Hitomi was determined to look under and over every piece of furniture in order to find that girl. 

"Hitomi," Goofy began.

"We have the report now let's go!" Donald said.

Hitomi heard, but she wasn't ready to give them any response yet. She was working very hard to climb up into an easy chair for a better view. She could grip the fabric better than she could grip a smooth surface. This made the chair ideal to climb. Gravity was not Hitomi's friend. She would grab hold of the fabric like a vice, but each time she had to remove her hand to climb up she couldn't get a good enough grip to stay on. Always she would climb a little bit, but after removing her hands the fabric would be pulled straight and she wouldn't be able to grab hold. Every time she tried she fumbled and fell. Thank her lucky star she never got that high to begin with.

"We can't just give up now. . ." she said, her voice joyless and somber.

"Maybe Donald's right," Goofy said.

"What?"

"We have somethin' now and that's better than how we began. You know what they say When the goin' gets tough the butter gets soft,'" the Knight said, as best as he could understand it.

She gave him a perplexed look. She heaved a small sigh and realized that it was futile to keep searching for something that probably wasn't there. Alice was either dead or long gone from there. It would be best to move on now. Back to Gaea where what they thought was Ansem's report could stay out of harm's way.

"You're right," she said reluctantly. She decided before leaving like this that she should look around one more time. She motioned for them to follow her in case anymore Heartless decided to pop out to their surprise. They walked the full perimeter of the room and stopped in front of the sleeping door knob. Hitomi sighed again, looking at the report. Then a most curious thing happened. The Keyblade seemed to want to jump out of her hand. It pulled until it was aligned with the doorknob and a light came pouring from out the end into the key hole and then stopped.

Hitomi nearly fell backwards when the Keyblade stopped pulling. Her expression was nothing short of shocked. _What was that?_

"Are you all right?" Goofy asked, giving her some support so she wouldn't fall over.

"I . . . I think so," she replied, standing up straight.

"What do you think that was all about?" Donald asked.

"I'm not sure. . ." She seemed rather distraught about something just then and then shook it off though it remained in her eyes that something had clearly bothered her just then. 

"Everything will be ok," Donald reassured her. He pulled out the energist. "Are you ready?"

Goofy and Hitomi nodded. Hitomi slipped the report inside her jacket and zipped it up to keep from losing it on the way back to Gaea.

Donald waved his staff around and a bright light appeared around them. Hitomi felt a sort of tingling sensation and the next thing she noticed was that she was back to normal size. Then he held the energist above his head. A light from within drew the pillar of light to them. It descended upon them once again. As it did, a strange feeling came over Hitomi. This light seemed different than before. It was like they were almost too heavy for it but it lifted them with great force into the heavens once again, like always. It was still strange. It wasn't the kind of awful feeling she got from the Heartless and this strange thought that it was some kind of conspiracy, but more of a feeling that they were being pulled in another direction, not the one that they were supposed to be heading toward.

Riding within the pillar that they were controlling was different from the few surprise trips she had when she first came to Gaea. It was more comfortable for one. That allowed some more space to think and relax without too much worry of being tossed about and then crashing to ground. At least she could better prepare herself for the crashes in the future. It was fortunate that on her first ride she had her duffel bag with her. She landed rather funny in that field with Van, which could have resulted in an injury of some sort. With her bag, she had something softer than solid ground to land on. _Yes, our journey to that wonder-land place was much smoother. I suppose I should call it Wonderland. I'm still wondering what its real name is._

Below Hitomi could see the tops of trees grow larger as they neared the ground. Hitomi readied herself for another landing when something very odd happened. They began descending faster and faster. It was about six feet from the ground that the light disappeared all together and the three of them fell to the ground. They landed with a loud thud on the hard, cold ground. Hitomi managed to land upright at first, then fell down on her knees. Donald and Goofy lay piled on one another. Confused as to what just happened, Hitomi looked for a clear patch where she could see the sky; to determine if she had indeed come to Gaea.

She walked around in the darkness until the forest let up a bit and allowed a good look at the sky. Though she was faced with a problem. She could only see straight up. Although the Earth and Moon weren't in that line of sight, there was still a chance it could be found over by the horizon. With the dense forest in the way, it would take a while to find out.

She pictured the pendant in her mind and asked where she should go from there. What way to take would be the quickest out of the forest. She had to determine that she was on Gaea! This was a need to be most satisfied, because some how she felt as if she had come to the wrong place.

Earnestly putting all of her efforts into finding the way out was not to be rewarded. As she closed her eyes and thought of an exit to the seemingly never ending forests they were always in something came in overhead and quickly knocked her unconscious.

**

_****_

This world has been connected...tied to the darkness...

Darkness was all around. Her senses didn't seem to work at all. For many moments she could see nothing, hear nothing, and feel nothing . . .

__

Am I having a vision? she thought, trying to grab hold of a reality that was constantly slipping away. Suddenly, she felt herself come awake. She was in her bedroom! Laying in her own bed, covered in her own sheets. _Is this real?_ Hitomi took the covers off. She was in the same clothes she had been wearing before, but she wasn't in the middle of the woods this time; she was home! For a moment she felt all her worries slip away. Her world, her home, had not been destroyed and sitting in an easy chair nearby her bed was a sleeping Yukari.

__

Everything's back to normal. Nothing's changed, it was all a nightmare. A very strange, and yet very frightening nightmare, but one none the less.

She looked out the window, the Sun was beginning to set.

__

Why am I in here? Did I pass out trying to find Yukari?

"Mom? Dad?"

Wait... This isn't right, she thought. Nothing made sense all of the sudden. She couldn't be at home. She knew what she saw! Her world crumbled away into the darkness.

_****_

All of the worlds are connected to the darkness...they are all tied to the same fate. You can do nothing to stop it. There is so much to learn...you understand so little...

It's that voice! _I know that voice. Who are you?_

****

One who knows nothing can understand nothing. . .

Why do you keep saying that? Who are you? . . . What are you? The same dark voice had echoed that message before. It sounded like someone was there actually saying these things the first time she heard it. This time it was in her own head. Someone or something was reaching into her mind and telling her all of this telepathically. So it seemed. The voice was very dark, cold, and distant. It didn't feel like it was a real voice and yet she still understood it.

She suddenly found herself being pulled away by a giant shadow figure. It wasn't any ordinary shadow figure, it was hers. Her shadow had pulled itself from the ground and began pulling her away from her room. The walls began to collapse all around and that same dark void that swallowed the Earth was once again present in her eyes. She saw Yukari in what was left of her room.

__

"Hitomi!" Yukari called out.

__

Yukari! she called back, but Yukari didn't seem to hear her. Hitomi fought to free herself from her own shadow. She still called out the name of her best friend until all before her faded from sight and she felt herself grow tired and heavy.

**

"Yukari..." she mumbled in her sleep.

"She's coming to!" Donald shouted.

"Hitomi?" Goofy said.

"Yu.. Yukari..."

"I'm not Yukari, silly, I'm Goofy!"

"Hitomi! Wake up!" Donald kicked her.

"Ow! What was that...for?" Hitomi was now wide awake and aware of her surroundings. First she discovered she was not lying down, but hanging upside down. She found that her blankets were actually the rope that held her and she felt the most powerful headache she had ever had come on to her. Upon shaking off most of the pain, she glanced around the room. It was a messy room. Clothing, straw, toys, weapons, some beds, knotted tree stumps, and a few oddly dressed little boys glaring at her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Well," Goofy began explaining, "we were in the woods and I think you said somethin' about dowsin' to find a way out. The next thing I know is I get a clobbered from behind and we woke up hanging upside down and you were talking in your sleep."

"Again?" she moaned, referring to the time Merle had made fun of her for talking in her sleep. Hitomi didn't have many bad sleeping habits like others did, but her sleep talking could either be more annoying or more entertaining depending on who was listening to her. 

"How often do ya talk in your sleep?" Goofy asked very honestly.

"I don't know, I'm always asleep when I'm doing that," she answered.

"Well, it's better than sleep walking, huh?" one of the little boys asked.

"No way!" a larger boy, dressed as a bear, argued. "Sleep walking is much more fun to watch than sleep talking!"

Suddenly the room was in an uproar over which was better, sleep talking or sleep walking. Meanwhile Hitomi, Goofy and Donald were getting such very painful headaches from hanging upside down that they could barely focus on which side was winning the argument. For the moment, there was nothing better to do than listen to the boys squabble.

"Excuse me!" Hitomi yelled very loudly to get their attention. "Could you get us down from here, I'm really not feeling so good."

"No way!" one of the boys shouted. "Pan says that all of Hook's spies should hang for trespassing!" Many others answered in their agreement with lots of yeahs.' "We're not going to let you down!"

He had apparently misinterpreted it, and for that Hitomi was somewhat thankful, but for the time being she was beginning to think that a beheading would be more merciful. She probably would have been better off with the Queen of Hearts.

"We're not spies of Hook. Look, if you don't believe us could we at least hang right side up?" she asked, hoping that they would grant her this small request.

The boys looked at each other and then went into a huddle. They deliberated on whether to let her down or not. Another boy came into the room. He didn't walk in like any normal person, he flew in.

"So the spies are awake, huh? What should we do with them?" he asked the group of boys.

They began suggesting cruel things they could do to Hitomi and her friends. Hitomi began to feel more nervous than sick at their suggestions. Some suggested they be used as target practice for their sling shots, others suggested that they throw em to the crocodile, and then some said about using them as hostages to get Hook once and for all. What scared Hitomi the most was the enthusiasm these young boys were putting into their sentence.

"That's what we'll do! If Hook wants his crew back he'll come get em!" the flying boy decided.

"Then what?" one of the boys shouted.

"We'll feed em to the crocodile!" They were in an uproar again, this time it was in agreement of their fate. 

"What are we gonna do?" Goofy whimpered.

"We'll talk to them," Hitomi said.

"Talk to them!?" Donald said very accusingly. "They wouldn't listen to us. I think we should plan to escape when they leave."

"We don't know when that would be. We're better off trying to explain ourselves to them. If we are on Gaea, maybe we can get them to take us to Van or if we're closer to Asturia, maybe Millerna," she said.

Donald sighed and gave her a slight nod.

"Excuse me," she began, "there's been a mistake. We're not spies. We don't even know who or what you're talking about." The boys glared at her, but the flying one gestured to keep listening. "Do you know of King Van of Fanelia or Princess Millerna of Asturia? I'm a friend of theirs. They could vouch for us. They can tell you we're not spies."

The flying one began laughing.

"Do you think it worked," Goofy asked.

Hitomi rolled her eyes. They didn't believe her. 

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nice try, but no spies of Hook's are going to get out that easily," he continued laughing.

"We're not spies! Why don't you believe us?"

"Come on, don't play dumb. We heard that Hook was going to send three spies to the island to find this place and we caught you. You might as well give up because we're not going to let you go," he explained and then laughed some more.

He then turned to leave the room, but stopped just in front of the doorway. "Cut them down. Bring them with us to the beach. There we'll get Hook's attention."

** 

Van glared at the energist that once gave Escaflowne it's power to live. He glared at it as if it were Van's own worst enemy. Worse than the likes of Zaibach. Worse than his brother had been. The pink crystal shone with a dull brilliance under the clouded sky. It was an object guilty of nothing, and Van sat there, his eyes accusing it for it would make him break a vow he had made one year ago.

"This is to protect Gaea," Van whispered sternly.

"Yes, Lord Van," Ruhm appeared from behind him.

"Escaflowne will reawaken, but it will not be a power for war but for our survival," Van swore vehemently to the energist in his palm.

"You've thought about this for a long time then, Van?" Ruhm asked.

"Yes. It was one of the most painful decisions I've ever had to make. I hope I don't have to do it again," he said, and walked out toward Escaflowne's resting place with Ruhm keeping pace behind him.

**

It was surprisingly calm near the ocean. There was no sea breeze at all. _How strange, _Hitomi thought. Living on an island nation and having visited Palas Hitomi was fully aware that there was always some kind of windy activity going on at the beach. There was none here. _Why is it so calm? _She looked up to the sky and scanned all sides of the horizons. There was no Earth, there was no moon. It was very dark. She pondered that while trying to loosen her ropes. Peter Pan was the name of the boy that could fly without wings. He had ordered his "Lost Boys" to take her, Goofy, and Donald to the beach and guard them until he came back from the pirate ship that was just a ways out in the bay.

One of the boys spotted she was trying to get out of her restraints and bonked her on the head with a wooden gun. "You're not going to escape that easily," he warned, getting some of the other boys to get their sling shots in warning positions. Hitomi relaxed her arms a bit, and began working her hands around to try and pull the ropes loose from behind. They didn't seem to catch that at least and went back to watching the ship for any signs of their leader.

They had waited several minutes from when Pan boarded the ship. Nothing happened. Hitomi wasn't paying attention to how much time had passed between when he had left and presently when one of the boys caught her again trying to escape her ropes.

"He's sure been gone a long time," a boy in a fox suit said.

"Yeah," another agreed.

Their expressions had changed. They were no longer confident as they were before, they were now worried.

"Do you think he's all right?" Hitomi asked.

She hadn't meant to be rude by getting into their conversation. Since they thought of her as an enemy it was probably very rude to ask such a question. She realized that when they turned and glared at her.

"Why should you care?"

Hitomi didn't answer. "You're worried about him. That he might be hurt," she said.

"That would be your doing! If it wasn't for you pirates Wendy wouldn't have gotten kidnapped!" he yelled at her. "And if she didn't get kidnapped, Peter wouldn't be over there now trying to save her!"

__

I see now. We were to be a trade. He'll get Hook back here and then he'll realize we're not pirates and . . .

She was jolted out of her thoughts when the Lost Boys started to holler, jump, and shout. Something was flying towards them. As it approached, certain details could be made out. One such detail was that it was too small to be Peter Pan.

It was also a lot brighter. The little figure flew in fast. It stopped in front of one of the Lost Boys. They became more than a little worried about the situation when one of the boys said that they got Pan.

"Let's go!" one of them commanded and they all ran off in the direction of the boat. One thing was very clear at this point; they were all alone.

"Come on! Before they come back!" Donald said while fiddling with his ropes.

Hitomi and Goofy did likewise. 

Hitomi managed to loosen her restraints enough to have the ropes slip off. She then aided Goofy who got himself even more tangled in his ropes. The rope was running in all sorts of directions and was very tight on him. Instead of the knots being a lot looser, they were a lot tighter. Hitomi, while in the process of loosening a large knot asked: "How did this happen, again?" She got him free of his ropes while Donald waited patiently.

"Ok, now..." Donald was cut off by Hitomi who was running in the direction after the Lost Boys.

"Come on, we should go help them!" she shouted back to them.

Goofy and Donald stayed in one place. When Hitomi noticed that they weren't following she turned and ran back.

"What's wrong?"

"No. We're not going to go save every person when we go to their world. We should stay out of their business. Remember what happened last time?" Donald said.

"I do remember what happened and that's why I want to help them," she explained.

"No! We're on a mission to find the King and your friend, remember that?"

"I do," she replied. "Although you say we should stay out of their business, in my experience no matter what you do you always end up in their business. Already we were a part of it, and we were part of the reason for what just happened. I cannot live with anymore guilt," her voice ended in near whisper.

Goofy felt very sympathetic for the girl and what she wanted to do. The only one who didn't seem to want to budge was Donald. After a few seconds passed, it was clear that Hitomi's words had gotten to him as well.

"Fine," he said.

"You'll help me then?" Hitomi's face brightened.

"Yes, we have to. If we don't then you'll probably leave anyway and we would have failed our other mission," Donald said.

"Other mission?"

"To protect the Keyblade," he said and began walking.

"Oh. . ." She started running off again. Goofy began running as well, and then Donald decided he'd better keep up.

"How are we going to get the ship?" Donald asked.

**

"That's very funny!" Captain Hook laughed at Peter from behind the door.

"What's so funny?" Peter gave him a venomous glare.

"That I sent my men to that island to look for you already." He cleared some tears from his eyes. "The truth of the matter is that I wasn't planning on sending some men out there for at least another month," he laughed. "I wanted to get the rumor started so you would stay on guard and then after waiting for so long give up on the idea and that's when I'd have you caught!"

"Then they..."

"Nothing more than a conveniently placed group of bilge rats!" he laughed a lot harder this time. "Of course, the best part is that you have no one to blame, but yourself."

Hook was right, and to add insult to injury the door to Peter's holding opened and in tumbled the group of Lost Boys. The door slammed firmly shut as soon as the last rope-tied boy rolled in. The laughter of the pirates could be heard outside their door and it stung Peter like a knife in his back.

Wendy was caught, he was caught, the lost boys were caught and the only one that was able to aid them was Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell couldn't really do much but try to pick the lock on their door. However, the design of their door prevented even small things from entry or exit when the hatch over the small window was closed. Tinker Bell, being loyal to Peter Pan, remained with him inside. They would have to wait for one of the pirates to open that or even the door and Tink would be able to fly out. It would be too much trouble to try to burst through all at once and risk getting killed.

As if their prayers have been answered the door opened. In came Hitomi, Donald, and Goofy and the door shut fast behind them. With so many being thrown in the room at once, none of the pirates noticed Tinker Bell escape.

"It's you again," Peter said.

"Yeah," Hitomi sighed.

"We got caught, now how are we going to find the King?" Donald asked.

How they were caught made them feel like amateurs, although Hitomi was a beginner in swordsmanship and Donald and Goofy had no real idea of where they were headed. Still, Donald and Goofy at least had the experience of defending themselves in combat. It was really more like child's play. They had spotted a little row boat just sitting on the beach. At first it appeared suspicious, sitting there so conveniently with the oars inside it. It had crossed their minds to look for any pirates that might be roaming the beach. They looked under and around a few rocks, in the trees that lined the beach, and any other dark looking patches that would make ideal hiding places. They just didn't look well enough. When the felt it was safe enough to just take the boat some of the bushes came out and grabbed them! One of the shrubs broke apart as one of the pirates grabbed Donald by his legs and stuffed him in a bag. Another two were trying to gather Goofy up. He was swinging his shield around and managed to hit one of the pirates. His shield collided with his head like a frying pan. The other one came up behind him and pulled a long sack over him and then swatted Goofy on top knocking him out for a bit. The last two only had to put a knife to Hitomi's throat and the struggle was over. The next thing she was aware of was burlap before she, Donald, and Goofy were locked in this room.

Goofy and Donald slumped against the wall and to the floor. Hitomi felt awful. It wasn't her intention to get caught, and yet they were and she had no one to blame but herself. Maybe Donald was right. Maybe they should have just left and looked around the island for the King, Yukari, or even another piece of Ansem's report. She stood with her face to the floor. _It's all my fault. . . How are we going to get out? Why did the Keyblade have to choose me?_

"It's all my fault. . ." her voice quivered.

"What is?" Peter asked.

"It's my fault that we got caught and now we're stuck here and. . ." she trailed off, not unable to finish her sentence as she choked back her tears.

"How is it your fault? The pirates got you, it's not like you walked into a trap on purpose," he said.

"Well, actually . . ." Goofy started, but stopped when Donald jabbed him in the ribs.

"Never mind," she sighed and fell against the wall.

"We need to make a plan of escape," Peter said.

"How do we do that?" one of the Lost Boys asked.

"See that little slot at the bottom of the door?" Peter pointed to a little spot on the door where you could slide it open. "When they come to deliver out meals they'll open that to slide the food on in." He began whispering, "if we jam it they'll have to open the door. We'll hide out beside the door in those crates and barrels and take them by surprise!"

"Yeah!" the boys chimed in chorus.

"But you have to be quiet," Peter said.

Peter took out the thimble Wendy had given him and jammed in the crack between the slide and the door to keep it from opening. They then waited. Although these pirates didn't seem like the type to care if they ate or not, Hitomi reasoned that if they got any food at all it was because the pirates would kill them themselves. Starvation would probably take all the fun out of it for these guys, and that thought was sickening her. The rocking of the boat wasn't helping. _Oh, why did I have to think about that? _Memories of being caught and held in Zaibach came flooding back. Then came a knock on their door. Then a jostling of the little hatch that was to slide open. Peter gave the signal to duck away. After a few good pounds against it and some light swearing the pirates decided to open the door. The door opened with a creak. Two pirates looked in and saw the empty room.

"They're gone!" one exclaimed.

The one with the meal tray walked in followed by another with his sword drawn. They looked around the little room. All they saw were crates and barrels. The room was dead silent.

"How did they?"

"Witchcraft! That little duck was carryin' one of them magic wands, he was!"

"Witch?!" Donald squeaked out in anger. Hitomi put a finger to her lips to keep him quiet. It wasn't going to be easy to hide out with Donald.

"Naw, it couldn't have been witchcraft. Maybe they's hidin' out in one of them barrels," the other suggested.

They walked all the way to the back of the room. The first pirate put the meal tray in one hand and lifted the lid of one of the barrels. In a second, Peter flew out and knocked the pirate backwards, the food tray spilling all over the floor. The other pirate saw this and fled towards the door to lock them all in. He looked back to make sure Peter was still in the back of the room. The door slammed shut about then. In front of it were the Lost Boys and the three travelers.

The boys jumped the pirate and brought him down in less than thirty seconds. His sword fell away when he hit the ground. Goofy took it away from him. Peter grabbed the other pirate's sword from its scabbard. They then found some rope and proceeded in tying the two pirates together.

The Lost Boys, Hitomi, Goofy, and Donald slowly crept outside the door, the two stolen swords with them. In Peter's reasoning, if pirates caught them now they wouldn't go down so easily and certainly not without a fight. Pete flew swiftly and silently ahead to the next door. He creaked it open and when he saw no one was in sight, he signaled for everyone to follow. The next set of doors were sealed. Peter pulled hard but couldn't get either to budge.

"There's gotta be a way!" Peter said.

Tinker Bell tugged his tunic and pointed up. The floor above had a hole in it. They could simply fly through!

"All right, Tink, they need your help to make it," Peter said as he flew on ahead to make sure the area was secure.

Tinker Bell sprinkled faerie dust over the Lost Boys. She finished with the Lost Boys, but paused when she came to the three strangers. In Tink's eyes they were very strange and she wanted nothing to do with them. However, it was Peter's order to help them make it, so she then proceeded after a few seconds of deliberation. Peter came down to see how everything was.

"Come on! There's a window open up there. Go back to the tree house there," Peter said.

"What about you?" the boy dressed as a bear asked.

"I'm going to save Wendy!" Peter declared. "Now, go on."

The Lost Boys flew up through the floor and headed out the open window as Peter ordered. Peter noticed that the strange girl was still standing there with her two companions.

"You guys can go wherever your home is," Peter said.

"We can't go home just yet," Goofy said. "We're lookin' for our King, and Hitomi doesn't have a home to return to," he explained.

That stung her. She had been trying not to think about her home so much since they were caught and then Goofy had to go and point it out. Hitomi kept her gaze to the floor. Goofy realized his mistake and apologized right away.

"How come?" Peter asked.

"How come' what?" she asked him.

"How come you have no home to return to?" he asked again.

She replied, "it's a long story."

"How long?"

Hitomi shook her head, not wanting to think about it anymore. She felt the stinging pain of losing everything dear to her once more. "Let's go before those pirates find us."

**

"You know who now? Interesting," Captain Hook said, pacing back and forth in his cabin. A solitary figure stood opposite in the room in the shadows, a pirate on either side. "Take her down to where Wendy is. We are done chatting for now," Hook said and dismissed them.

"Cap'n!" Smee shouted.

"What is it?!" Hook snapped at the sound of Smee's annoying voice.

"The prisoners and Pan have escaped!"

"What?! Find the bilge rats and put them back in their cage!" Hook shouted.

"But Cap'n, they're no where to be found on the ship," Smee told him. Hook had a feeling that Smee was going to suggest something in spite of what he would say, so he let it go this time.

"What are you suggesting, Smee?"

"Perhaps we should go to the island and look for em," Smee suggested, covering his head from sudden impact of a flying object.

"Fine then, Smee, take some of the men to the island and search," Hook said rather calmly.

"Cap'n?"

"My newest crew members will do fine here." Out of the shadows appeared horribly disfigured looking pirates. Dark and frightening, they appeared everywhere in the cabin, wielding large blades.

__

"You may go now, Mr. Smee," Hook said, leaving his cabin and followed by the Heartless Pirates.

The Heartless were rather restless, unable to stand still very well, and some swinging their swords a bit wildly. Hook smirked.

"You know that girl is still aboard the ship," he said.

**

"To fly all you have to do is think of one happy thought," Peter explained.

For the three of them, their one happy thought was getting out of the cramped closet space on the ship. Every time they tried to think of a happy thought, someone ended up on top of someone else. They had been in there for about ten minutes trying to figure out a way to move around without stepping on someone else. Tinker Bell spent a good deal of the ten minutes laughing at them.

"You know, maybe we'll figure this out best out there. We still have to find Wendy, right?" Hitomi said, trying her best not to either fall down or squash Donald.

"You're right, we need to get going." He slowly opened the door to see if they were good to go. He couldn't see any pirates anywhere and he didn't hear anything. He opened the door all the way and flew out. All in a row like dominos Goofy fell flat on his stomach followed by Hitomi on top of him and Donald on top of her. They landed with a rather loud thud accompanied by an omph!'

"Shh!" Peter said, putting a finger to his lips, as he gently flew along the ship's cargo bay and through a door that led them back to the hole in the floor above. "Follow me," he whispered.

He went up through the floor. Now it was time to think of something else that would make them happy, now that they were out of the closet and able to breathe. Donald and Goofy were able to think of their kingdom and their fond memories of it. They lifted off the floor and went through the hole above. Hitomi on the other hand had a lot more to be depressed about than happy. She couldn't find it in her heart to be happy at this point.

"Come on, Hitomi!" Goofy called. Peter and Donald both quieted him with a shh.'

Hitomi noticed some large crates near by. She had an idea. They could have done this in the first place and saved them a lot of trouble with that blasted closet! She got behind a rather large one and with all her strength pushed it. It was difficult to move at first but then it gradually began to slide upon the deck and into place.

"What are you doing?" Donald asked.

"I'm getting up there," she replied.

Donald smacked his forehead. Hitomi moved a smaller crate next to the large crate making a sort of make shift stair case. She jumped the two crates and up through the floor. In this new room there were a couple doors. Both were locked.

"Drat!" Peter said.

Tink noticed a small hole in the wall and peeped through. Inside one of the adjacent rooms was Wendy. Peter caught Tink looking at something through the hole and had a look for himself.

"Wendy!"

"Peter?" came a meek voice. Wendy looked through the hole back at Peter. "Peter!" she cried with joy.

"How do we get you out?" he asked.

"I don't know, it's all locked from the outside here," she answered.

The way the rooms were set up was that there was a little hall through one of the doors that led to a couple more rooms, both next to each other and separated only by chicken wire.

"Don't worry, I'll pick the lock and have you out in no time, Wendy!" Peter said.

"There's someone else here, Peter," Wendy mentioned.

"Who?"

"Another girl," Wendy answered. "Older than I am. She came back in here not too long ago and hasn't really spoken since. I'm afraid Hook must have done something awful to her."

"Yukari," Hitomi whispered.

"Huh?" Goofy and Donald spoke.

"We have to get in there!" she shouted and ran over to Peter to see if she could help him pick the lock a little faster.

The lock was a stubborn and rusted piece of junk. They all took turns trying to pick it open. It seemed as if they would have to start over again and work very slowly and carefully to open the lock. Hitomi watched as Peter tried to unlock the door again. Donald and Goofy were standing guard. The needle Peter had taken from Wendy's house had slipped from his hands and fell through a crack in the floor. Peter looked through to see if he could see it. He came back up and shook his head. 

Hitomi sighed and leaned against the door. The Keyblade brushed up against the lock and it fell open. The three stared at Hitomi and the Keyblade for a moment.

"Well, uh, it's open," she said at last and took the lock off the door.

They pushed the door open and ran in to see. Wendy was waiting by the bars of her door to be rescued. In the cell next to her was Yukari.

"Yukari!" Hitomi called out from the other side. There was no response. Hitomi could see in her eyes that something wasn't right, almost as if there was no sign of life. "Yukari!!" 

Hitomi grabbed onto the bars ready to force the door open, when she remembered the Keyblade. She held it up to the lock on the door. She heard a click and pulled the door open. She ran to her friend.

"Yukari, are you all right?" she asked.

Yukari moved a little, and looked up at her friend. Hitomi appeared relieved that she had moved a little. _She has thought me dead?_ she wondered. She didn't say anything to Hitomi, though she knew Hitomi would ask her to say something so she could be sure she was alive.

Yukari had that same gaze in her eyes right now as she did the night the Heartless attacked Earth. She was concerned over Yukari's condition. She still seemed so lifeless.

"Yukari, come on, we should get out of here," she told her friend.

Yukari didn't budge. Hitomi wondered if Yukari might have been injured or something and that's why she wasn't moving. She asked her if she was hurt. She got no response. She reached out to try and lift her, but something flashed in Hitomi's mind and she recoiled. She looked at her hand. She had felt something strange just then, but wasn't sure what it was. _What was that? It couldn't have been Yukari . . . What was it?_ She looked to Yukari who was beginning to stand up, but slowly.

"Are you all right?" she asked again.

Yukari was silent for a few seconds more. "Hitomi."

"Is everything all right?" Goofy asked.

"Uh, yes," Hitomi replied.

"We need to get out of here," Donald said.

"We know," she said to him and then turned back to Yukari. "Come on," she said taking Yukari's hand. As she did, in burst a group of pirates.

"So, you didn't like our nice accommodations, eh? Perhaps the Captain can see that ye needs are met," one of them said. 

One of the pirates jumped Peter and put him in shackles. The rest drew their swords and herded them out the door. It was a small area and there were too many blades to go up against. Someone would have said it was wise to give in rather than fight a battle that couldn't be won, but Peter felt as if he was running away from danger. Hitomi appeared afraid to do anything. Perhaps she was thinking of her friend's safety. Donald and Goofy were caught instantly with him, and like him, held a similar frustration of not being able to fight back. 

Wendy cried out Peter's name. Then she, too, was taken from the room along with the girl, Yukari.

**

The door to the Captain's cabin swung open in a wide arc and in were thrown Peter, Hitomi, Goofy, and Donald. Where as they got the opportunity to taste carpet Yukari and Wendy were still being held upright by two of Hook's pirates. A man in a red velvet coat, which Hitomi presumed to be Captain Hook, sat up from his desk and walked over to them.

He bent down to Hitomi, who was up on her knees now. "I was hoping you would stay in one place to at least make this easy on me," he said.

"Your Captain Hook?" she asked.

"The one and only," he replied, twisting his hook tight. "To be honest I was rather surprised that you would show up here, and that you were so easy to capture." He strolled on over to his wine stand and poured himself a glass of brandy.

"What do you want with us?"

He flashed a wicked smile. "Well now, where do I begin?" He then strolled over to his desk. "With Peter, it's a mere quest for revenge. Wendy was the set bait of course. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lucky for me, bad luck for you, my dear."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The Keyblade you wield," he said simply. "I have it of a higher order to take it from you should I find you. It was lucky for me you and your little friends were wandering aimlessly near my ship's docking point."

Hitomi glared at him. "Why is the Keyblade of any interest to you? Why did you kidnap my friends if that's all you wanted? Why did you kidnap Yukari?" she finished her questions, taking a glance at Yukari who still seemed so lifeless. "What did you do to her?!" she demanded him to tell her.

Hook shook his head. "I haven't done a thing to the young lady in question. I wasn't aware you even knew her. I found her wandering aimlessly as well," Hook lied.

"What?"

"I had the King's fools kidnapped because according to my higher source, they could get in the way," he finished. He then grabbed Hitomi's shirt furiously with his hook. The fear he drew out of her gave Hook a malicious satisfaction. "Either you give me the Keyblade or I'll send your traveling companions off the plank!"

He then let go and sent her stumbling backwards, though she managed to still stand up right. _I can't let him have the Keyblade, but if I don't he'll kill Donald and Goofy and I can't let that happen either. _Hook sat there waiting for her to answer. _What do I do? _

"Hitomi, don't let him have the Keyblade. Our survival depends on it," Donald pleaded.

"Listen to him, he knows what he's talkin' about," Goofy commented.

__

I can't. . .

"It doesn't matter what happens to us, as long as you still hold the Keyblade," the Wizard finished.

Hitomi sighed. _I can't let them die. . . What am I going to do?_ She looked at Captain Hook who was still waiting patiently for an answer. She then understood what she must do. "I will give you the Keyblade."

"Very well then," Hook said.

Donald and Goofy were still pleading for Hitomi not to do it. She ignored them, not wanting to listen to them try and convince her that they should lay down their lives for the greater cause. She wouldn't let anyone simply give up their life for her sake. She was stronger than the person she use to be. She wouldn't rely on others to fight for her. Hitomi held it out to him and as he reached to grasp it from her it disappeared. When it did, Hitomi felt a strange power inside of her for a brief instant she felt as if something buried itself within her heart, and then the sensation of it vanished like the Keyblade.

"What?!" Hook shouted in rage. "You would go back on your word at the cost of your friends' lives?"

"Wha-? But I don't know what happened," an all too astonished Hitomi said as she looked around in vain for the missing Keyblade.

"You lie," he said. "If the Keyblade has gone from you then it must have appeared else where. We no longer need you alive." Just then a group of Heartless Pirates appeared all around them. "You can stay here and entertain my new shipmates. As for the other two young ladies, we will see that they are properly fitted with chains." He sent the Heartless to push aside Peter and the rest while he sent his other pirates and their captors out on deck.

The door slammed shut and locked. They were trapped with a group Heartless and without the Keyblade to defend them. There seemed to be no way out. Swords were pointed at them from all sides and were closing in. Goofy was shaking behind his shield while Donald tried his best to keep up a fierce appearance behind his staff. Peter managed to slip out of his cuffs and had his dagger drawn and was ready to slash through them the second they went for an all out advance. 

That familiar feeling of helplessness came back to Hitomi once again. She couldn't really help them against the Heartless now. Then one lunged at her, and suddenly the gap between her and the floor closed in as she fell off to the side. She wasn't hurt, save for perhaps a small bruise that would develop from the fall. Standing over her was Goofy who held his shield out in defense. He had once again saved her. She thought back to that Wonderland place and how he had helped her before when they were trying to get Donald's staff back. This time it seemed more than just a simple defense. He saved her, and she didn't even have the Keyblade. Wasn't that the whole reason she was even important to them? She looked over to Donald, who was blasting all of the Heartless with lightning. Their long and broad metal swords made great conductors. Peter was flying around cutting down each Heartless. He seemed least likely to be in any danger, since he had flight to aid him, and it appeared that he was enjoying the experience very much. It was almost scary the way he laughing and taunting the Heartless.

She turned back to Goofy with a questioning look. He was too busy trying to survive the Heartless' attacks to see her. Donald also had his fair share of troubles. Peter, well, he wasn't so much in trouble now, but he was having a good time flying in circles and laughing at the Heartless. Donald and Goofy still needed help though. Hitomi then wished that she had the Keyblade back with her, so that she could be able to protect everyone from the Heartless. She then felt a sort of golden warmth inside her. In a flash of light the Keyblade reappeared in her right hand. _It was with me the whole time?_

Some of the Heartless swarmed on her; with the Keyblade in hand, she was able to hold off their swords. She was at a disadvantage when one of the Heartless came up from behind and knocked her legs out from under her. In spite of this, she still held them off. Of course now it was difficult to make a move.

Peter, who was having the time of his life taunting them, saw Hitomi's predicament. He then seized the opportunity to sneak up behind the Heartless that had her pinned to the ground. They were so busy trying to gut her that they didn't seem to notice anything else that was going on. Not that the duck and the dog were beginning to gain the upper hand in this battle, not that their comrades were falling right in front of their noses, not much of anything at all. He flew in close behind and got them all in the back with his dagger. They collapsed, a couple fell on Hitomi, and vanished in a sort of black smoke.

Hitomi brought herself back up and thanked him for his help. Peter, in his own way, explained that he was returning the favor for her attempt to help him earlier. The last of the Heartless vanished from the room space. The three travelers were able to breathe a sigh of relief. Though, it did seem strange that the remaining few would give up all of the sudden and retreat.

__

Is it over? Is that all there is? she thought. Then a dark voice entered her mind. It was that same one that kept saying that the worlds were tied to the darkness. This time it hailed a different message.

_****_

For that one instant when you did not have a weapon to defend yourself with, you were terrified of even your own shadow. . .

The voice then left her. _What does that mean?_ Then she felt something grip her, as if it were a vision. She hadn't had any visions in so long, but now she felt that feeling that came with a vision. _No! I don't want to see it!_ She felt a little dizzy at that moment and then the dizziness subsided. She turned around and saw her shadow lift off from the ground and come for her once more. Just like in her dream. She suddenly snapped back to reality and saw that everyone was giving her a quizzical look.

"Are you all right?" Peter asked.

"Oh, I'm fine," she replied.

"Come on! We need to go find Wendy," Peter said and flew towards the door. Donald and Goofy followed him. Hitomi took a quick look at her shadow. There wasn't anything different about it, but still, two warnings of the same thing kept her on edge. She thought better of the situation and turned her attention to the door that separated them from the outside world.

**

"You want to take her with you?" Hook asked her.

"She has been under my spell long enough. It is time that she wake up and see what she must do. She will be of more use to me than that other girl would be," she replied.

"Are you sure she isn't a Princess of Heart?" Hook asked.

"Very sure," she said.

"Why is it that this other girl would be of more use? She isn't one of the Princesses either."

"She knows the one who wields the Keyblade. The rescue attempt earlier proved so. I will take her back to Hollow Bastion and show her what trouble her friend is. Do as you like with the other one," Maleficent said and vanished with Yukari in hand.

"Very well then, but your plans won't work out as well as you would have hoped when I bring down the Key bearer," Hook said to himself.

"There you are, you old cod fish!"

Hook turned to see that Peter Pan on the lower deck. The Key bearer was standing right behind him with two of the King's buffoons. Hook walked down from where the helm stood and drew his sword.

"Where's Wendy?!" Peter demanded.

"Why, she's over there." He pointed to the other end of the deck. Wendy emerged from the shadows, held by two of the Pirate Heartless.

Peter appeared very angry at that moment. "You let her go, Hook! Your fight's with me!"

"If you insist," he said, giving the signal to throw Wendy over board.

Pan jumped into flight and cut through the Heartless. He held on tight to Wendy's arm and flew off the deck. He didn't want to leave Hitomi and the other two behind with Hook. He wanted to settle the score with the Captain himself, but he wouldn't be able to throw Hook to the crocodile with Wendy as a hostage. He would drop her off and at the tree house and come back. He threw out an "I'll be right back," to them and disappeared from view.

"Well, no matter. I'll get him when he returns," he said, stepping around the three.

"Where is Yukari?" she demanded.

"She went with Maleficent to Hollow Bastion, but that doesn't matter because you're not going to get there," he said, point his sword at her throat. "I see the Keyblade has returned."

Hitomi didn't look down at it, she kept her eyes on Captain Hook. The Heartless were stupid creatures, although lethal. Captain Hook was a man. A being who could think well for himself and who probably had great skill with a sword. He would be more dangerous than any of the Heartless they had encountered up until now. Hitomi knew that he wanted the Keyblade and that he could probably get it without any hostages. After all, he had trapped her twice. Although she was knew to the experience of battle and fighting battles that would end with one survivor, she knew that she couldn't underestimate him or she'd never see Van or Yukari again.

She was scared though. Scared that she might not be able to react in time to block him, scared of what would become of her, scared that if she didn't survive everyone she cared for on Gaea would die, scared that Yukari might be enduring something horrible, and scared that it would be all her fault that she couldn't be strong enough now when she needed to be. She couldn't afford to think like that now. Her attention needed to be on the idea that she needed to live, not the thought that she might very well die.

Hook lunged for her. She felt herself moving in slow motion to put up her object of defense, but in reality it had happened much more quickly than it seemed. Hook's blade fell upon the Key, not her. He was strong though. He was putting pressure on his blade that put pressure on the Key and was putting pressure on her arms which were beginning to fall back to her. _No!_ She pushed back. Then he pressed his sword on the Keyblade much harder. _I can't do this by myself. . . What are Donald and Goofy doing?_ she thought. She turned her head slightly to get a glance at what those two were up to. More of those Heartless were swarming on them and they were fighting to protect Hitomi's back side. _They're helping me. I can't lose to this guy. I'm an athlete and I have great stamina. I can take this guy._ she thought again. She suddenly didn't feel as scared anymore or as weak. She felt strong and empowered.

She moved the Keyblade into a position where the sword wasn't on top, but a little off to the side. She then swung hard and the sword was at enough distance from her to counter Hook's next swing. She then found herself in the same predicament as before with his blade pressuring her down. She let off her resistance and tumbled aside. Hook, who wasn't expecting the surface upon which he put his weight to disappear like that, fell forward on the deck. He was on the ground and Hitomi was standing up right.

"You'll pay for that!" he shouted and jumped back up.

He swung out his blade, but she evaded to the side though still holding the Keyblade up in a blocking position. He did again and she moved again. She wasn't very skilled in sword to sword confrontation, he guessed and knew that he had an advantage in that.

Hitomi kept moving from side to side of the ship, slowly backing up to the plank. She didn't notice that she was running out of deck space. When Hook's expression from that of anger and annoyance changed to a clever minded smirk, Hitomi wondered if she had backed herself in a corner without knowing it. She was half right. She had come out onto the plank and felt trapped. Hook had blocked off her way back onto the ship.

"Hitomi!" Donald and Goofy shouted.

There was no where else to go but down. She thought while standing near the edge of the board that she heard a voice. It started out as a whisper, but then it was suddenly loud enough for her to hear.

"You can fly, Hitomi. Just believe," it said, sounding a lot like Peter Pan.

She swallowed hard and then jumped off. Hook then listened for the sound of a splash. The seconds rolled by and there was none. Then something darted straight up from blow the plank. Hook looked up to see Hitomi airborne and with the Keyblade pointed at him. 

The Captain had a stunned look on his face. Hitomi now had an advantage of air space and could get away from his strikes much easier than before. It was going to take a while to bring her down. 

She flew in, raising the Keyblade to strike him down, or so it seemed. Hook readied his sword to counter the Keyblade. In an instant, the Keyblade and the sword met and then something shattered. Hooks blade was now in two pieces. The sharpest piece now lying on the deck while his hand held the broken stub. Hitomi landed just behind him. It was a most incredible feeling. It felt like winning at the final track competition. That was the best known feeling that she could tie into. What set her heart pounding was that she had beaten him without having to hurt him. 

Hook wasn't as happy. He turned to her with a furious gaze. "Blast you!" he shouted at her and then threw the remaining part of his sword to the ground. He then came out advancing with his hook. She held up the Keyblade as if it were a bat ready to strike him, but then he stopped dead in his tracks. 

"Going somewhere?" Pan said. He had his dagger up against Hook's back.

"What makes you say that, boy?"

Hook turned about and caught the dagger within his hook and yanked it away from Pan. He pointed Pan's own weapon at the boy's throat. He started advancing and Peter began backing away from him. 

"You can't win this time, Pan," he said as he closed in on Peter.

A gust of wind picked up around Hook at that moment. He found himself in the air, and dropped Peter's dagger. The next thing Hook was aware of was that he was over board and in the water. At first he was absolutely enraged. One moment he had Peter Pan before him and the next he was in the water. His anger subsided into fear when he heard a familiar ticking sound. 

"Ahhhh!!!" They heard him scream as he scrambled about in the water. They saw the crocodile attempt to take a couple of good bites out of Hook before he disappeared under water. After a few minutes of bubbling under the surface, Hook never came back up.

"Well, that takes care of him," Peter said, slipping his dagger back into its sheath. "I only wonder where that wind came from. I barely felt it, but Hook was dumped over board by it."

Hitomi felt sick to her stomach. Hook was as good as dead now. Getting eaten by a crocodile or drowning were some of the worst ways to go in Hitomi's mind. She, herself, wouldn't ever fancy suffocating under water or having a bite taken out of her. Hook didn't strike her as the kind of guy who would surrender under any circumstances. She would have felt much better if he had just given up. Whatever happened to him had happened and there was nothing she could do about it. She decided it best not to wonder anymore about it, or she'd have to run to the rail. _Where did that wind come from?_

"That was me," Donald cleared up. "I cast a wind spell on him to drive him away from you."

"That's great! I still would have wanted it to be me to have caught that old cod fish on a hook," Peter said. "And you figured out how to fly. What were you thinking about?"

"Van," she answered.

"Who? What?" Peter asked.

Donald and Goofy snickered. Hitomi flashed a quick glare at them and then turned back to Peter.

"He's someone very dear to me," she explained. Peter nodded almost knowingly.

__

And more than anything, right then, I wanted to see him again.

**

Peter had taken them back to Wendy's world. They found themselves high above a huge city. Hitomi was amazed to see city lights like the ones on Earth. When she saw the tower with the clock face she realized what it was; Big Ben! They were on Earth! _But how? _They landed on the clock tower and walked around. 

"I don't understand," Hitomi said to herself. "I thought the Earth had been . . ."

"Thought what?" asked Wendy.

Hitomi snapped back to attention. "Oh, um, well it's hard to explain."

"Oh."

"This is going to sound silly, but I thought the Earth had been destroyed," Hitomi explained anyway.

Wendy giggled. "It does sound silly."

__

I wish this was only a silly nightmare so that I could just wake up and everything would be all right again. . .

That feeling she had when she saw her shadow come for her loomed on her mind. It brought frightful images of her home disappearing right from under her. The darkness in which Yukari first disappeared. When they were able to search the ship no one could find a trace of Yukari. That nearly broke Hitomi's heart though some small part of her believed her best friend was still out there, somewhere. Standing here and seeing that some part of her world still existed gave her some hope. The fight with Hook had taught her that she still had a ways to go. She would have to ask Van for lessons in sword fighting. The adventure in Wonderland had taught her that different worlds could effect you in many ways. She had no idea how to prepare for that, but she knew if she had shrunken down again Donald could bring them back to normal size with his growth spell.

She felt more at ease standing here and looking over the city. Everything looked so peaceful, and the scent of a warm breeze caught her and reminded her of the warm nights at home. She longed to be there more than ever now. She wanted this quest to be over so that things could get back to normal as quickly as possible. She could long for it all she wanted, going through all she has has also taught her that she still had a ways to go. Although she wanted to scream real loud and let all of her frustrations out, for the moment she did find herself at peace and she thought she'd enjoy the here and now before they would return to Gaea.

__

***

End of Chapter Three. 

Chapter Four will be well on its way shortly. Thanks again to all those who read and or reviewed.


	4. Prelude to Open War

KINGDOM ESCAFLOWNE

AN: Well, when we last left off in chapter three I said this would be done fairly shortly. Never trust those notes. Most of the time I'm wrong. I ran into a writer's block in this chapter and then college started. I've been swamped with homework and classes and trying to find a job. I'm hoping to get close to finished with this fic before _Kingdom Hearts II _is released. I think I have until fall 2004. Anyway, Van fans should be pleased since most of this chapter is written through his point of view.

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne, Kingdom Hearts, or Disney.

***

". . . The power of the guardian. Kindness to friends. A shield to repel all!"

Chapter Four: Prelude to Open War

They made a smooth descent into Fanelia. The weather all around hadn't changed much. It was cool out and there was a light snow fall. There was little to no breeze to sting their faces as they walked to the Fanelian castle gates. In the streets Hitomi could see the worried and confused faces of the people. They were probably most concerned about the weather, since it was unusual to snow this early in the year.

Hitomi sighed sadly. Fanelia was just pulling itself back together and now this. _Will it get any worse than this?_ A light snow fall would never hurt anyone, but the Heartless would. She stopped briefly in the middle of the road. Donald and Goofy stopped just ahead and waited for her. Her mind was not on the here and now, but what may lie ahead. Just about everyone she knew and cared for was missing. Van was at least one soul on which she could count on to see again. Not all of her struggle had been in vain. She had gathered a piece of what appeared to be part of Ansem's report and the name of a place of further withheld information, Hollow Bastion. Wherever that was she was going to find a way to get there somehow. She began moving again and so did Donald and Goofy. It wasn't until after that brief stop that she realized that she was exhausted from everything that had happened. _I can't rest yet, I have to see Van first._

"Hitomi," Ruhm greeted. They were barely at the castle and Ruhm was right there in front of them.

__

Why is he out here? Is he leaving? "Ruhm, are you -?" Hitomi was cut off.

"I'm not leaving," he said. "I saw the pillar of light and came out to get you."

"Where's Van?" she asked.

"He's in his study. Come," he led them back into the castle.

Everything was fairly quiet all through the streets and in the hall of Van's castle. The hall was still much the same as when she had last seen it, except it was a bit warmer than the outside. When they came to Van's study she saw that there was only one Fanelian soldier standing in front of the door. When he saw Ruhm approaching he left down the hall where they came. Just as he left he turned and gave Hitomi a dirty look. She wondered what that was about, but she thought she'd ask Van about it. Ruhm opened the door and the three of them filed in the room. Ruhm came in shutting the door behind him.

Van was sitting at his desk, his head facing down. He had felt awful for breaking his vow. He hated the fighting. Yet there was still worse news he could not keep to himself. He didn't want Hitomi to know otherwise she would worry over things here and might refuse to complete her mission. Van would rather have her stay, but things on Gaea now . . . 

"Van?" Hitomi spoke up.

Van slowly looked up from his desk. She was back! Though she appeared to be quite calm her eyes did not hide the fact her mind was troubled. Van could see that. He could see it because he understood it. He got up from his seat and walked over to her.

"Hitomi, I'm glad you came back safely," he said to her. He didn't know how to explain that whatever was protecting Gaea before was now gone and that this place was as dangerous as her travels were. Though, when he said those words to her, her expression changed. Her eyes didn't convey any troubled feelings as they did when she came in. They seemed to convey a warm and comforted feeling. 

"It's good to be back," she replied. Before she was about to settle into a conversation about how everyone was since she was last there she remembered the three pieces of paper safely tucked away under her jacket. "Oh! Van, we found something." She opened her jacket and pulled out the three pieces of paper and handed them to Van. 

"What's this?" Van asked as the glanced through them.

"Well, we're not sure. We think it might be apart of that report Ruhm mentioned before."

Van's eyes locked onto a small sketch of what looked like a Heartless. _Is it really?_ He looked at the papers in almost disbelief, but he didn't know if it was or wasn't part of the report they were looking for.

"Let me see," Ruhm asked and took the papers from Van. He looked through them as Van did and his eyes also caught the tiny sketch. "Do you know what it says?" he asked Hitomi.

"Um, no," she replied. 

"Lord Van?"

"I've not seen writing like this before," he replied.

"I thought you knew how to read it," she said.

"I'm sorry, I've never seen writing like this before either. I know . . ."

"The King has!" Donald spoke up, finishing Ruhm's sentence.

"But when you were talking about it, I thought that you would know . . ." Hitomi restated.

"I've only heard of this report and what it contains, not what it says exactly." He looked at the papers with a confused look as to what was written.

Hitomi sighed in disappointment. She once again had that worried look in her eyes.

"Don't worry about it," Van said. "We'll call Dryden to help us out. If he could translate the language of the Mystic Moon without any help he should be able to translate this. Don't worry, we'll get it figured out."

Hitomi only sighed again. _All that work and still far more to do. _

Van became very serious again. After a hopeful note on understanding their enemy he still had to tell her, tell everyone, that the Heartless on Gaea have massed into an army. He couldn't tell her, not now at least. He thought it would be best if he waited until Hitomi was in a better mood to take the news. Now with the calm exterior gone he could see that she was tired from her traveling.

"Come," he said, going to the door and opening it. "You need a hot meal and some rest. We can talk about everything over dinner and after I'll make sure a bed is made up for all of you."

"All right!" Donald said and jumped to high five Goofy. They were in an agreeable mood for this.

__

I guess it'll be nice to relax with a warm meal. Although it was a nice thought, she still felt tired and unnerved. She followed everyone dismally to the dining room.

**

The dinner went over without much complaint. Now and then Hitomi, Donald, and Goofy gave Van odd glances before asking, "what is this?" Hitomi had eaten food in Asturia, but she never exactly had a Fanelian dish before. As close as she got to eat food alongside Van was that flight from Palas in which the main course was roasted beetles. Though this was much better than that night. The food actually looked edible and Merle wasn't trying to steal her pocky (not that she had any to be taken).

Merle was at the table with them and asking Hitomi for just about every detail on her journey just before criticizing one thing she did or another. This annoyed Donald to almost no end and Hitomi's patience - what was left of it - was wearing thin. She found trying to eat, talk, and accept Merle's remarks very difficult to do at the same time.

Van cleared his throat at mid conversation to get everyone's attention. "I have something very important to tell you. . ." he trailed off, finding it hard to come right out and say it. 

"Yes?" Hitomi asked.

Van cleared his throat. "I must say," he began. He looked at the wondering faces of Hitomi, Goofy, and Donald and became unnerved by it. "There is something you must know. . ." Van restated.

"Uh... you already said that," Goofy verbally pointed out.

__

How can I tell them now? If I don't tell them and a surprise attack comes then . . . but if I tell them they'll worry and they look so tired still. Hitomi. . . "I wanted to say how glad I am that all of you are back safely," he announced and took another bite of his meal. _Perhaps dinner isn't the best time to say this, _he thought nervously.

Their expressions hinted at confusion. Then Donald spoke up.

"You said that in your study, your Majesty."

"I did?" Van asked, becoming slightly more nervous.

"Yeah," Hitomi answered. "Is there something wrong? You seem kind of nervous."

Van always tried to look confident no matter the situation. It was a poor thing for a king to show feelings of concern or discontent. He wondered if he had slipped up in that. Surely he was feeling nervous about telling them, but he wasn't sure if he was actually showing it or not.

"Well," he began, carefully choosing his words this time. "I'm just glad to see you all back safely. Truly, you know. Your journey couldn't have been easy, and I worry about you, Hitomi."

She smiled at him. "Thanks for your concern, Van."

Van smiled and then leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Well, enjoy your meal. There's something I must prepare for right now, but I'll be back to see you all off to bed." He got up and left the room.

"Where do you suppose he went off to?" Goofy asked.

Hitomi's concern returned. _There is something wrong. I can feel it._

**

Van had gone out into the garden. It was dark and cool outside still and ever so silent. Darker now since it was nightfall. Normally he could relax on dark nights anywhere outdoors, but on these nights he still felt unnerved and the more so while he was outside. He wasn't sure why he came out here. It was probably due to habit. To escape the stress and smothering indoor air he'd go outside and just soak up what nature had to offer. It was very soothing to him. One of his favorite things to do was looking up at the night sky. After Hitomi left, his eyes fell more on the Mystic Moon. These nights though there was no wondrous night sky to look up to and more saddening, no Mystic Moon.

__

I wonder how Hitomi is coping with that, he wondered. It wasn't easy for him to deal with the loss of his country and wondered if the loss of a whole world was more painful than that. He decided not to think too much about that. When he did, memories of his mother, Folken, and Balgus came flooding back and those always hurt. He began walking toward Escaflowne's resting place.

He stopped just in front of it. For his own safety he should have moved the Escaflowne to a safer location rather than leave it out in the open where it could be preyed upon by the Heartless. He left it there because he wasn't willing to let anyone else but Ruhm know that his vow had been broken. Mostly, he didn't want Hitomi to know.

"I can't hide you forever," he whispered in the silence.

**

"Hitomi, shouldn't you and your friends start getting ready for bed?" Merle asked persistently.

"But Van's not here yet," Hitomi said. 

They were standing in a finished hall with some of the nicely furnished rooms in the castle. It branched out from the more main halls of the castle and the dining room where they were previously. This was a part of the castle Hitomi remembered seeing before when she first came to Fanelia. Of course she was placed at the opposite end of the hall with the not so nice rooms. Donald and Goofy, who were overcome with curiosity, had opened most of the doors and looked in. As far as Hitomi could remember, much of the castle was rebuilt with hard wood floors in the rooms. Those were much nicer than a rug on stone. Probably why Fanelia burned so quickly and well, much to Hitomi's dislike of remembering all of this, but pretty much everything in Fanelia was made out of wood in contrast to stone. There were a few stone structures, but most of the country's homes and other buildings were made of wood.

Although stone wasn't as comfortable it did last longer. She wondered how often floor boards were replaced in the castle over the centuries before it was burned down. Her thoughts snapped back to the present time when she felt Merle poking her sides.

"Would you cut that out!" Hitomi shouted and Merle stopped.

"We've been waiting for a long time for him to come back," Goofy stated.

"Yeah," Donald said, "let's just go to bed now and we'll talk to him in the morning."

"I think I'll go look for him," she said and began walking in the direction of Van's study.

"Hitomi, I think it would be best for you to wait here with us." Ruhm took hold of her arm.

"Come on, I'm just going to his study. He probably lost track of time or something."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go alone," he said.

"Will you come with me then?" she asked.

Ruhm sighed. "Sure, I'll go with you."

"I going too!" Merle shouted.

It wasn't going to do them much good to stay there by themselves waiting to go to bed so Donald and Goofy sighed a bit, shrugged their shoulders and joined in the quest for Van.

**

"He's not here," she said worryingly.

"Perhaps he went out to the garden. He's been going out there a lot since you left."

"Oh?"

"Come, I know where to find him."

She followed the giant wolf-man out the half finished corridor. As soon as they left the walls and roof behind she felt a sudden chill run through her. It was like ice had penetrated her skin on all sides, but as suddenly as it came it left. She noticed all around her that the air felt still. The snow had stopped falling and it no longer felt as cold as it did before, but it did seem darker. She didn't know if what she felt actually happened. No one else seemed to be as alarmed as she was.

"Was it just me or did you guys feel that too?" she asked, her voice a bit shaky from the shock.

"Feel what?" Goofy asked.

Donald turned around to face Hitomi and Goofy and nearly fainted in doing so. Behind them was a gigantic shadow creature. In the middle of this thing, where the stomach was supposed to be, was a hole in the shape of a heart. 

"Run!" Donald shouted.

Goofy wasted no time in getting away but Hitomi was frozen in place. Aside from Wonderland she had never encountered a Heartless of this size before. It was a huge, towering figure that was even darker than the night itself. She wanted to run, to get away from it, as fast as she could, but she felt like she was wearing cement shoes. She staggered back a couple of inches but couldn't find the strength to get beyond that. It wasn't fear alone that paralyzed her, there were a number of hard truths that she came to realize. Gaea wasn't the haven she had hoped to find. Ever since she had arrived Van had neglected to tell her something. Something important, from what she could tell in his expression. _Is this what he didn't want to explain?_ _Why would he not tell us? _she wondered. Although all of her thoughts also managed to stop her in her tracks, she'd known that Gaea wasn't all that safe from the Heartless; but if it was this bad she couldn't understand why Van would not warn them of the danger right in his own backyard.

The Heartless made a fist and swung it down at her. She managed to break the bonds that held her in one place and jumped back a foot or two. The Heartless wasn't moving all that quickly. Just when it tried to smash her did any part of it seem to move fast at all. She watched as it tried again. It appeared to move in slow motion as it made another fist. Although she was aware of what was going to happen if she didn't move all of her focus came down to one question: _Where is Van?_

It came down again, just the same as before, but Hitomi couldn't find the power to make herself move out of harm's way. She heard the cries from Ruhm and everyone else for her to move, yet she could not react. Her friends seemed too far out of reach and even though they were shouting she could barely hear them. She looked up one last time as the darkness came down for her. In a heartbeat a flash of light came crossed in front of the darkness. She blinked a couple times to clear her vision. She wanted to make sure that what she was seeing was really there. The light that came across wasn't really light, but a small gleam from a long, metal object. The object was held by an enormous white figure. _Escaflowne!_

"Hitomi!" Van's voice shouted from the control chamber. "What are you doing down there? Get away from here, Hitomi!"

She gave a slight nod and ran to where Ruhm was. Escaflowne made quick work of the enormous Heartless. Escaflowne's blade took off the creature's arms and finally its head. The towering Heartless diminished in a puff of black smoke. When it all cleared there was nothing left in its place.

Escaflowne kneeled before Hitomi. The control chamber opened and Van stepped out. He felt heavy, as if the guilt he was feeling were really on his shoulders. He fell more than he jumped off of Escaflowne's knee and landed with a loud thud on his feet. 

Hitomi and Merle rushed to him. Van looked up with a heavy heart into Hitomi's eyes. "Are you ok, Hitomi?"

She nodded in reply.

Van looked at the ground again. _If I hadn't have made it. . ._ he thought. He looked up again. "Hitomi," he whispered, "I'm so sorry."

**

They went to Van's chambers after that to discuss what was really going on. Van felt it was much safer for everyone to meet in his chambers for there were more guards on sight and it was more enclosed than his study currently was. Hitomi, Merle, Goofy, and Donald sat on Van's grand bed. Aside from the bed she had in Asturia, Van's was the largest bed she had ever seen. Ruhm stood off in the corner of his room while Van paced back and forth in front of Hitomi and the rest.

"I just don't understand why you didn't tell us all of this before," Hitomi told him.

"I was just," Van started. "I didn't really–- it's just that I. . ." he trailed off again.

"Van stop pacing back and forth like that and just tell us what you mean, exactly!" Hitomi commanded.

"Yeah, you're making me dizzy," Merle agreed in a sickly tone.

Van stopped pacing. He went over to a comfy looking chair and sat down. "All right, all right," he said.

"Van, I know you didn't awaken Escaflowne without a good reason so don't take it so hard," she comforted.

"Hitomi, I'm sorry," he began again. "I should have told you about the dangers here right from the start it's just that. . .I was afraid I'd worry you with such news. I just wanted to make it so when you came here you didn't have to worry so much. . ."

"Van," she began, "I appreciate what you were trying to do but . . ."

She was cut off. "I know! I should have told you all." He looked away for a moment. He looked back and said, "Can you ever forgive me?"

She looked into Van's eyes and saw that they were full of guilt and regret. She sighed and said, "Of course, Van." 

That didn't change his mood though. He still felt as if he had committed an unspeakable crime. He turned away and stared upon Escaflowne. _If I hadn't gone to get Escaflowne Hitomi would have been. . ._ He felt something on his shoulder at that moment and jumped as if surprised. Hitomi was right behind him and her hand lifted away when he jumped.

"Van, are you all right?" she asked. 

He only nodded in response. Merle came up by his side and hung on his arm, as she normally did.

"Van, don't take it so hard. The important thing is that we're all ok," she told him.

Merle nodded while Van continued to stare, and sat rigidly as if he were to have his body react to anything at moments notice. After a moment more of silence Van finally spoke.

"If I hadn't gone for Escaflowne you–-you wouldn't be here now. . ." he choked out the last few words as if he were about to cry. He sucked in a sharp breath of air and sat as rigidly as ever.

"You were going to tell us, weren't you?" she asked.

Van turned his head a little. She had guessed right. There wasn't any other reason he had in mind for fetching Escaflowne. "I guess so, but that still doesn't make what I did any better."

"Come on, Van! Let it go, we're all fine and you're the one who saved us. Isn't that enough for you? Don't sulk all about it, Van," she nearly shouted at him.

He turned all the way around this time. Mostly out of surprise that Hitomi was yelling at him. 

At that moment one of the guards burst into Van's office. "Milord!" he shouted. When he got up to Van, he bowed and said again, "Milord!"

"What is it?" Van asked rather sternly.

"We have a visitor. You need to come to the throne room right now!" he said with urgency.

"A visitor? Whom?"

"Prince Chid of Freid wishes a conference with his majesty, the King of Fanelia," the guard said.

"Why has word not been sent ahead of time of his arrival?"

"Perhaps if his majesty were to go in and meet with the young prince he would find out?" the guard told Van in a questioning tone. Realizing how he must have sounded to Van, the guard bowed once again, but lower this time.

"All right. Go in and tell the Prince that we'll be but a few minutes."

"Yes, Sire!" He turned to run back, and as he did he gave a leery glance to Hitomi, though she didn't pay much attention to it.

Hitomi stepped forward. "Prince Chid's here?"

"I guess so. You all may retire now or Merle can show you some other parts of the castle, if you wish, I have to put Escaflowne in a safer place. I shall explain all of this later, all right?"

"Yeah, ok. Be careful, Van," Hitomi said.

"I will," he replied and climbed into Escaflowne.

"Come on, Hitomi! I'll race you to the other end of the hall!" Merle shouted.

"Huh?" Hitomi said.

The cat-girl leapt ahead and darted out the door. Hitomi started running after her. Donald, Goofy, and Ruhm continued walking at a comfortable pace.

"So, who do ya think's gonna win?" Goofy asked Donald.

"Who cares," the duck replied.

Hitomi had caught up to Merle, but her mind wasn't on beating the cat-girl but on another matter. _Prince Chid. . . I wonder how he's been._

**

It was a close race, but in the end Merle came out the victor. Hitomi didn't really care, but Merle's constant teasing was starting to dig deep holes in her tolerance of the cat-girl. Ruhm eventually picked up pace and led the group away from where Prince Chid was waiting for Van.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Somewhere more private," he replied.

"Why?"

There were a number of guards that were giving them dark looks as they walked by. It was hard to not notice so many people giving them strange looks. Some men glared while others seemed edgy. This kind of attention made Hitomi feel uncomfortable. Goofy and Donald didn't seem to notice. She glanced down at Donald who was following just behind her. He was too busy trying to keep pace with them. Goofy, who was in back, was whistling some tune Hitomi had never heard before. She looked ahead and saw that they were once again heading down another long corridor. 

Near the end they went into another room that looked something like Van's study, except there were a couple of sofas, chairs, and a bar. At the opposite end with two more sofas was a fire place with a fire in it. There were shelves all over the room as well displaying hundreds of books. There was also a small desk with some papers on them. Ruhm gestured for them to have a seat.

"What is this room?" Hitomi asked.

"Van's private study," Ruhm replied.

"He has two studies? Why is this one so much closer and well protected than the one Van works in?"

Ruhm cleared his throat and began explaining. "This is Van's private study. No one is allowed to disturb him while he's in here. This is a place where Van can read to himself, entertain a small number of guests if he chooses, and or work apart from being bothered every few minutes about the matters of the kingdom."

"Oh? So the other is like a public place?"

"Something like that. That study is used to deal with matters that need his attention immediately. It is also a place where diplomats can meet him and they deal with international affairs," Ruhm explained.

"Why have them spaced so far apart though?"

"It's because Lord Van wanted it that way when they rebuilt the castle. He wanted them to be on opposite ends of each other. Before Fanelia burnt down the private study was next to Lord Van's sleeping chambers!" Merle explained as though Hitomi should have known that before.

Ruhm spoke up, "That's part of it. There was another reason why it was designed that way. Van wanted the more public study to be closer to the garden so if he wanted to he could take diplomatic representatives out for a stroll in the garden to discuss treaties and alliances there. I think Van intended it to be for show as well."

"Oh, I see," Hitomi said with a better understanding.

"I wonder how long it's going to take before they come down here," Merle wondered.

"As long as it needs to take," Ruhm answered. "I will go down there and observe what's going on. When they're done talking I'll tell Lord Van that we're all waiting down here for him."

"He doesn't know?" Donald asked.

"No, he doesn't. Merle, I want you to be in charge until I get back. Should any of those guards come down here, explain that you are waiting for Lord Van to come down here. Be mindful of how they'll react when they see Hitomi and her friends here. They won't like it," he finished and walked out of the study.

"They won't like it?' What does he mean by that?" she asked Merle.

"Hitomi, some of the guards and people of Fanelia think that the invasion of Heartless are your fault."

"My fault? Why do they think that?"

Merle sat down in one of the chairs. "Well, they think that you brought them to Fanelia when you came."

"So they think this is like The Curse of the Mystic Moon,'" she said rather flatly, not too surprised that they would think that.

"The Mystic Moon has a curse on it?" Goofy pondered.

"No, it's just some stupid story," Hitomi replied.

"You'd think that at least the guards would know better, but since you left there have been more problems with the Heartless attacking the people. They don't know how to explain what's going on so when word got out that you had come to Gaea again they blamed you," Merle explained.

Hitomi sighed and leaned into a chair sitting across from Merle. At first she was annoyed about all this curse rubbish. To the people of Gaea just about everything was cursed. _Too bad you need the Mystic Moon in order to even have the curse!_ she thought bitterly. Just as she thought about her home though she grew melancholy. _I wish I could be at home right now with Mom, Dad, Yukari and even my brother. There would be no more monsters and everything would just be normal . . ._

Hitomi hadn't noticed how quiet the room was until Goofy spoke up. "I wonder what they're talkin' about."

**

Van walked into his throne room and before him was Prince Chid with a most urgent look upon his face. He had a couple of armed guards with him and one person who was his advisor. He strode over in front of the prince rather than sit upon his throne to hear what he had to say. One of Van's own advisors made a small coughing sound to hint that Van was to traditionally hear the matter while seated. Van ignored him and awaited to hear what Chid had to say.

"It is good to see you again, Lord Van," Chid said in a most polite tone.

"It is good to see you again, Prince Chid," Van replied and then cut to the chase. "Tell me, what brings you to Fanelia?" 

Chid didn't know where to begin. He looked to his advisor for assistance. His advisor silently gestured for him to continue as he was. Chid turned back to Van. "Something terrible has befallen my kingdom, Lord Van. I've come to ask if you'd assist us in the fight to resist it."

__

The Heartless? Van thought. _They're in Freid now. . . _He looked down to the young Prince. "Terrible? What is it exactly that would require military force to stop it?" He asked to confirm what he was thinking.

Prince Chid choked out the words as he spoke. "These. . . horrible shadows. . ." he began. "They suddenly appeared and attacked us. . ." He choked back, fighting off the urge to cry. "Please. . . Our soldiers are but a few since the war ended. These things that come now are too much for my soldiers. My people cannot defend themselves. The bodies have already begun to pile up. I fear that there will be more graves than people left. They are too much for us now. We need your assistance, Fanelia."

Van caught a glance of Ruhm walking in the room just as Chid finished. He took a place alongside of the wall and leaned against it. Van turned to Prince Chid. "Prince, you realize that Fanelia has her own problems right now and even if I could spare a moment to organize an army for you, our soldiers too, are few now and my men do not wish to fight so soon after what happened to my country."

Chid looked crushed upon hearing his words. He then shook his head as if to shake the sadness of being turned down away.

"That's all right. I understand."

"Prince Chid, did you not ask Asturia for assistance? They are closer and they can spare the soldiers to aid you in this fight," Van suggested.

Chid shook his head. "I went to them first. King Aston refused for the same reasons you did. After the war I couldn't press upon Asturia to act on our treaty."

"Your treaty?"

Chid nodded. "Yes, our treaty. Since Asturia had aided Zaibach in the attack against us a new treaty was written up demanding that they pay retribution and that they must aid us when we ask of them," he explained.

"Yet you do not force them to act on this treaty?"

"I cannot. Asturia had already paid us a necessary amount to help rebuild, but they still have their own people to take care of."

"Prince Chid. . ."

"It is because of that war that I cannot impress upon Fanelia or Asturia so much. I realize that we all have our own troubles. I will continue to search for the aid we need. Thank you for hearing me, Lord Van," Chid said and turned to leave.

"Your Highness, wait," Van said. "I cannot promise a great amount of soldiers, and I cannot promise a victory over these creatures, but since you have asked you have the aid of Fanelia and the guymelef Escaflowne."

Chid smiled. "Thank you."

Ruhm came up to them. "Lord Van, Lady Hitomi and company are waiting for you just down the hall."

"Hitomi?!" Chid shouted with surprise. "She's back?!"

"Why, yes, she is," Van told him.

"Yes, and if his majesty of the Duchy of Freid may, he is more than welcome to come, is he not, Lord Van?"

"Of course," Van replied. "Come, Prince Chid."

Ruhm led the way down the hall and into Van's private study. Chid trailed just behind Van with his advisor following him. Inside Goofy and Donald were talking about all the different titles of books on the shelves, and Hitomi and Merle were relaxing in the nice, comfortable chairs. The first thing Chid did upon entering the room was run up to Hitomi.

"Hitomi! It's really you?!" he asked just to be sure, although he thought it looked like her.

"Prince Chid!" Hitomi said, rather surprised to see him so suddenly.

Aside from Van, Merle, and Ruhm, Hitomi hadn't really heard too much of what was going on with everyone else she had met on Gaea. It was nice to see Chid again. 

"I can't believe you've come back, Hitomi!" the young ruler shouted with glee.

"I can't believe it either," Hitomi agreed.

Donald and Goofy cast all too knowing looks at one another.

"How have you been?" Chid asked her.

"I've been all right," she replied.

"I haven't been able to see the Mystic Moon for some time, tell me," he said, "how have things been at home?"

Her light expression dropped. She didn't know what to say or how to say it. Her home was gone and nothing could bring it back. She looked at Chid and tried to hide the sadness in her eyes.

"Oh, it's been, uh, ok . . ." she lied. "How have things been in Freid?"

"Awful," he simply replied. "We were right in the middle of our reconstruction when we were attacked."

"Attacked?"

"By these horrible shadow creatures!" Chid fumed. "We don't know how they came in but now we can't get rid of them. Oh, it's just horrible!"

"It seems as if the Heartless have been attacking various places of Gaea," Ruhm said.

"Who? What are you talking about?" Chid's advisor asked.

"Those shadow creatures you were talking about, Prince. They are called the Heartless. Creatures that do not have a heart. Hitomi, you should tell Chid the truth," he said softly.

"Hitomi?" Chid looked up at her.

Hitomi didn't know what to say. On top of that, she didn't even want to say it. She looked around the room and she could see that all eyes were on her. Being put on the spot didn't make any easier now. She cleared her throat a couple of times, but in the end she couldn't make the words come. Every second that went by she felt worse and worse. Ruhm then cleared his throat, redirecting some of the attention in the room to him.

"The Heartless . . ." Hitomi began. She looked to the expectant crowd. "They came and destroyed my home," she choked out the whole sentence. The awkward silence after didn't help. Hitomi felt awful. First for lying and then having to tell what really happened.

"Is every. . ." Chid began.

"Well, not everything is gone. I think the very last place we went to before coming here was London."

"London?" Chid asked.

"It's a large city back on the Mystic Moon. It's the capital of a country called England. . ." Hitomi trailed off thinking about her home.

"Then a piece of your home is still there with your family and. . ." Chid was very excited for Hitomi that a piece of her home still remained but he stopped talking as her fell down cast to the floor.

"London is not my home. My home, with my family and my friends, was in the part that was destroyed. . ." she whispered in sorrow.

"Oh, Hitomi. . ." was all Chid could say before trailing off and giving her a moment of silence.

Donald came forward. "All worlds are in danger!" Donald suddenly began. "We're on a quest to find out King now. He left to try and find a way to make it stop."

"Yeah, but now Hitomi's the Keyblade Master so everythin's gonna be ok!" Goofy added.

"The what-blade?" Chid asked.

"The Keyblade," Hitomi clarified and showed Chid the Keyblade.

"It does exist!" Chid's advisor said in a rather astonished tone.

"You know about it?" Chid asked.

"Yes, there is a small section on it in the Book of Lions," he said.

"What does it say about it?"

"It says that this Key will be our world's salvation, it doesn't go into the specifics of where it came from or what it does exactly. It merely states simply just that," his advisor said.

"So you don't know much about it then?" Chid asked.

"Well, we're learning. The Draconians had some idea of what it was. My mother did, anyway," Van added. "We know it is a weapon that the Heartless fear and that it chooses the person with the strongest heart to be its master."

"Yeah, it's also pretty handy with locks, too!" Goofy added.

"Locks?"

"It's a key, what did you expect?" Donald said.

"There was this thing in that first world we went to and it seemed to lock up that talking door knob. . ." Goofy said.

"It was weird, though," she began. "The Keyblade seemed to try and jump away from me to lock that door. There are many locks in this castle, aren't there? Why didn't the Keyblade try to lock those?"

Goofy scratched his head. "Uh, because talking locks are special?"

"Perhaps," Ruhm said. "I believe your King mentioned this before. That every world has a Keyhole. The Keyblade's purpose is to seal the Keyholes. That could be why you felt it's power tug you when you were in front of that door."

"Every world has a Keyhole?" Van asked.

"That's what he told me."

"Where do you suppose Gaea's is?" he asked.

"Perhaps it is in Freid? That's where the power of Atlantis was once sealed. It took a kind of key to unlock it," Chid's advisor said.

"Perhaps, but what is the point of sealing all of these Keyholes?" Van asked.

"Well, that could be how the Heartless are getting into all of these worlds," Ruhm said, even though he wasn't sure how to explain it.

"This world has been connected. . . tied to the darkness. . ." Hitomi repeated the dark words in monotone.

"Huh?" Merle said.

"That's what I heard when the Mystic Moon was, um, destroyed. Maybe when the Keyholes are open, they connect all of the worlds to the Heartless?" Hitomi guessed.

"That may be true," Ruhm said.

"I forgot to say this earlier. Hitomi, I am going to Freid to help them fight off the Heartless. I will gather recruits tonight and we will leave first thing in the morning. If the Keyhole to Gaea is in Freid we will find it and let you know. I would like you to wait here and rest for a little while. . ."

"No," Hitomi said. "I'm coming with you."

"Hitomi, please, I feel bad enough about tonight. I'll have my guards stay around and make sure that you're well protected."

"Van, I know what you're trying to do and I appreciate it, but if the Keyhole is the link, then you going to find it by yourself won't do any good. I have the Key that can seal it. Van, please, let me come with you. I might be able to help you out in battle. . ."

"I don't know. . ."

"Don't worry, your Majesty, we'll make sure she's safe," Donald said.

"Yeah, that's our job!" Goofy added.

"Hitomi, if you come, I don't want you to have to fight," Van said.

"Then don't," Donald began, "let us look for the Keyhole."

Hitomi nodded in response. Merle ran to Van's side and hung on his arm.

"What about me, Lord Van?" Merle asked.

"I'd like you to stay and keep an eye on things here, Merle. Don't worry, you'll be well protected," Van said.

"But Lord Van. . ." Merle whined. "What if the guards can't stand up to the Heartless? What if the soldiers . . ."

"The soldiers are coming with me, Merle," Van said.

"But. . ." Merle began.

Hitomi interrupted. "I know that you and Donald are supposed to follow me wherever I go, but maybe one of you should stay behind to help Merle out."

"Really?" they both asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"All right, it's settled then," Goofy said. "I'll stay and protect Merle. You and Donald go find the Keyhole!"

"What?!" Hitomi and Donald panicked.

"Yeah, Donald would be more helpful than I would. He can cast spells on a number of Heartless all at once. I can only get maybe one or two at a time. If we were to get swarmed or somethin', then I wouldn't be much help. Donald, you go and protect the Key!"

"All right then, you all need a good night's sleep and I'll see you in the morning," Van said, ushering everyone out of the study. Goofy was the last one, aside from Van, to leave.

"Should I guess that Hitomi and Donald need to learn how to get along?" Van asked.

"How did you know?"

"I seem to recall a similar thing with Hitomi and Merle," he replied.

Up ahead Hitomi was thinking, _I have a bad feeling about this._

***

End of Chapter Four! 


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